Frozen: Second Star
by sonicking2004
Summary: Picking up where Frozen: the Return left off, this installment finds Queen Elsa in the hands of a group of pirates who have whisked her off to a mysterious island with the intent of using her to obtain something that would make them the most powerful men on the sea. The only things in their way? One hot-tempered Pixie and her adventurous friends. Sequel to "The Pirate Fairy"
1. 1) Kidnapped

**Kidnapped**

The first thing Elsa noticed upon awaking was how much her head hurt! Never had she remembered ever having a headache this bad, of course it was currently hard for her to remember anything with her head throbbing like this! She kept her eyes closed while she tried to summon some ice to dull the pain, but to her surprise she was too weak to even form a snowflake, her muscles like warm jelly! That was when she noticed how warm it was, had she perhaps fallen asleep beside the fireplace? She immediately discounted that thought, as one of the servants would either have gotten her up and off to bed, or would have notified her parents so that they could. As she put her hands beneath her to try and leverage herself up, other sensations came to her, such as how hard and smooth the ground was beneath her, a residual moisture even now drying up upon it. In contrast was how rough the dress that she was currently wearing, to the point that it felt itchy where it came in contact with her skin.

When her headache started to die down to a dull throb, Elsa tried to force her eyes open as memories started to come back to her: The strange visitor named Julian, her parents' miraculous return, Julian's summoning his friends to protect her kingdom from the paranoid Duke, his parting gift to her during his heartbreaking farewell, then finally her heading off to bed when she'd felt the savage blow to the head!

As she finally blinked the blurriness out of her eyes, the full horror of her situation was made clear: she was in a cage! Barely tall enough for her to kneel in, had she the strength to do so, it appeared to be entirely made of metal, from the floor to the bars and ceiling. Judging by the gentle swaying motion she was experiencing, and the occasional tongue of flame she saw leap past the bottom of her cell, Elsa guessed that it must be hanging over a roaring fire!

Elsa's heart began to race as she started to imagine that she'd been kidnapped by savages who planned to cook her either as a sacrifice to their gods or to eat themselves. However, She soon discounted that as unlikely even though the fear she was feeling remained. For one thing, how could any savages have managed to get past her guards, let alone carry her past them again? In addition, neither the cage nor the room were the workmanship of such a people. From what she could see, the paneling appeared to be all wood with a large window giving her a spectacular view of the sea. Before it was situated a most extravagant desk and what looked like the perch for some sort of medium-sized bird. And while it might have simply been her lingering headache, Elsa could swear that the walls were not perfectly perpendicular but rather sloped, and that the ocean's horizon was not level but rather swaying gently back and forth.

As Elsa came to the conclusion that she was in the cabin of a ship, possibly even the Captain's own, she heard a gruff voice off to her left saying, "Ah, you're finally awake, your Highness! I am glad! I was beginning to fear that the men had been too rough in 'inviting' you onboard, then I would have had to kill the idiot responsible. You are much more useful while still breathing, you see."

As she turned to follow the sound of the voice, her head throbbing with the movement, she saw a grizzled man sitting in a chair near her cage. He was dressed in the style that she'd heard that some sailors from the Caribbean wore and had a large black hat resting on his head.

"Where…?" Elsa tried to ask, her parched throat grating painfully on the sound.

"You be on board the Jolly Roger miss," the man answered her, "My name is Black Adder, and I be the Captain of this magnificent ship and crew."

Elsa was sure that she'd never heard of the name Black Adder, but the name of the ship seemed uncomfortably familiar to her. Then it came to her how the flag used by certain groups was referred to as a Jolly Roger, but surely someone from that group would not go so far as to extend that name to their ship! Before she could stop herself, Elsa heard herself croak, "Pirates?"

"Please, miss, we prefer to think of ourselves as 'freelance entrepreneurs', seeking our fortunes on the high seas," Black Adder corrected. When he saw her cracked lips unconsciously smacking as she struggled to form words, he picked up a glass of water that had been set upon the floor beside him and offered it to her, saying, "Here, this should help. I'm afraid it's a mite warm, couldn't be helped, but it should cool your throat and wet your whistle."

As she took the glass from him, she could not help but think that he wasn't kidding about it being warm; the water seemed to be only a few degrees cooler than the cell she was in. However, it did indeed helped soothe the fires raging in her throat. While she gulped down the glass, the Captain added, "I apologize about your….'accommodations', miss, but we had heard about how talented your Majesty was, and we could not risk your leading our company before you and I had a chance to parlay. Of course, if I had known you were going to sleep this long I might not have had the boys bother going to such lengths."

Elsa was confused by this. She had heard of one of the old pirate laws that they called "parlay", in which a rival or a potential victim may request to speak with the captain, and that one may not be harmed until said parlay is done. However, why would the captain himself want to request a parlay with her, especially considering that she was already kidnapped and apparently powerless to effect an escape?

Before she could give voice to her question, however, Elsa had glanced down and was shocked by what she was wearing. The beautiful gown that she had herself given form to had been replaced by a dress that looked as if it had been clumsily sewn from a cloth sack, much like the kind that potatoes or rice might be kept in.

"Ah, yes, the dress," the Captain continued as he saw that she had noticed it, "I feel that I must apologize about that too. You see, when the boys had set the temperature in your room, the dress you had on just melted right off of you, as if it were made of nothing more than ice and snow. Then again, given what I'd heard about you, I would suspect that was exactly the case. When it became apparent that your dignity was in danger, I forced my men to leave the cabin and didn't permit any of them to return save for my new cabin boy, whom I'd sent to fashion for you some coverings out of what we had. We're a little light on ladies' fashion a the moment, you see, having unloaded our haul at Tortuga mere weeks ago."

Elsa's heart skipped a beat as she remembered her pendant and her hand jumped up to where it had rested over her heart. To her great relief, it was still there.

"Yes, your shiny," the Captain acknowledged, "Quite a few of the boys had their eyes on that pretty thing around your neck, but I told them no. We had already took you from home and stripped you of your dignity, the least we men could do is leave you with that trinket."

Elsa felt herself blushing furiously and began to grow angry as she imagined all those leering eyes upon her as she laid there unconscious, her dress disappearing. She didn't know how much had remained of her original dress when she'd first transformed it with her powers, but judging by how much of her now felt itchy in her newest garment, there hadn't been much left.

Her blood rising, Elsa looked the captain in the eyes as she said, "Now listen, I have no idea why you possibly would want to speak with me, as I'm merely the victim in this case, and if you were looking to collect a ransom then all you'd need to do is send a letter to the palace…"

"Ah, I see where you're going with this," the Captain interrupted, "Rest assured, your Highness, we did not grab you for a mere ransom. We're actually after a much greater prize."

Elsa refused to be deterred as she countered, "I think that you underestimate my worth to my kingdom, Captain!"

"No, your Highness," the Captain countered back at her, "I think that it is you who underestimate your value to us. Perfectly understandable, I suppose, given that you don't yet know of the prize we're seeking."

"The tale begins with our stashing our latest haul in the caverns of our little island. Apparently the town that we raided took issue with our appearance, as they sent an entire fleet after us that tracked us down there. As we had been caught completely unawares, I had taken refuge down in those catacombs while my crew took flight in our ship to keep it from being sunk by those bootlickers. I guess most of the fleet chased after them, leaving only one ship of men to try and drag me from my sanctuary. Of course, most of those clumsy fools fell victim to my many traps, leaving only one man standing guard on his ship, who apparently felt it better to blow said ship to Davey Jones with him onboard rather than let the likes of me take charge of it."

"So there I was, stranded: no ship, no crew, not even any enemies I could torture. Were in not for the small stash of non-perishables we had stowed there, in addition to the natural bounty of the Island, I imagine I would not be here to tell ye my tale. As the days turned to weeks and began to blur together, I begun to think that the fleet had done my ship in, or that my crew had believed the same fate befell me, when they had finally returned with such a tale I had thought they driven to madness."

"They told me of a most wondrous island, one that wasn't on any charts, and that the fleet that had pursued them was supposedly unable to find. Once there, they had encountered such strange and wondrous creatures that they had begun to think themselves mad, and as I listened to them I was inclined to believe that they were right. My boatswain, James, who had at the time been named Captain in my absence, had encountered one of the natives of that island. Apparently she had done something wrong that had angered the other natives, so James had taken pity upon her and offered her his friendship, even going so far as to let her take charge of my men as if she were their new Captain. Of course, none of them could understand what she was saying in her strange language, but she was a clever little thing and communicated well enough through drawn pictures and hand gestures. In exchange, she gave them access to her people's greatest treasure! Finer than the softest sand, this fantastic dust would've given my men the ability to be the most powerful…er, 'entrepreneurs of the sea' in recorded history. Unfortunately, the other natives had found about it and convinced her to help them take it back from James and my boys. Of course the men did their best to defend what they had earned, but the natives' bag of tricks and that little one's treachery proved to be too much, and so my men had to leave practically empty handed."

"At first I did not believe their tale and was ready to have the lot of them flogged, but then James had demonstrated with a tiny bit of the dust that had gotten trapped in his pocket. I could not believe my eyes as the flail begun to defy gravity. I decided then that we had to go back to reclaim that treasure, but we needed to prepare beforehand as getting it would not be as easy as before."

"That is a fascinating tale," Elsa scoffed, "but I don't see what it has to do with why I'm here."

"Why, it has everything to do with it," the Captain explained, "You see, during his time on that island, James had learned that the natives are a mite sensitive to the cold. If you were to lead the way, then the natives wouldn't be able to do much to stop us from reclaiming the treasure, and we could send you back home that much sooner."

And there it was, the full ugly truth of it. She hadn't been grabbed because they wanted a ransom for her, she'd been kidnapped because of her powers, because they wanted her to use them against other living beings. Elsa did not for one instant truly believe the Captain's version of the story, that his men were the wronged parties, and even if it was true the thought of deliberately using her powers against others in anything other than self-defense sickened her. "No. No way, forget it!" Elsa said as she shook her head frantically, her eyes wide and filled with horror, "I won't do it!"

"Well, I'm sorry to hear that," the Captain said regretfully, briefly lifting his hat to scratch the hair underneath it, "and so too, I believe, would your sister be."

Elsa's heart stuttered and stopped with fright as she breathed, "Anna!"

"Yeah, she had been asking for you quite a bit, that is when she wasn't trying to beat the stuffing out of any of my men who dared to come to close of where she'd been chained up at," the Captain continued, "Quite the spitfire, that one. Now I don't like to have to resort to threats, as I find that rather unrefined, but I'm sure that you would like to see your sister again, and not just her head."

With that, what strength she had been regaining was gone, and her hand that had been close to grasping the pendant and summoning Julian here instead fell into her lap as she said, "Alright then, you win. I'll help you."

"Ah, that's my girl! I knew that we could be reasonable here!" the Captain said amiably as he reached through the bars and patted her hand, and Elsa couldn't even find the strength to shy away from the repulsive touch. They then both heard a knock at the door and a nasally voice spoke through it saying, "Captain? The lookout wanted me to report that the island is now in sight."

"Very good, tell the men I'll be right there, Smee," the Captain answered back, then he turned to Elsa and said, "That was the cabin boy I'd told you about. I have to go now to begin making preparations, but I'll have the men come by later on to lower the temperature in your room, so that you can begin to get your strength back for this operation. You aren't going to cause any trouble when they do, are you?"

Elsa could only bring herself to shake her head no. Satisfied, the Captain smiled at her as he left the room. When she could not hear him anymore, Elsa lowered her face into her hands and began to sob as she reflected on the events of her life; she nearly killed her sister twice, had lost her parents, then her kingdom had gotten invaded just as she got her parents back, and now she and her sister had been kidnapped by pirates and are facing death at their hands if she does not use her powers to help them steal a treasure that might make them unstoppable. Elsa decided right then and there that if they got through this, then she was done. She would ask her parents to either take back the crown or pass it on down to Anna, she didn't care either way as long as it wasn't her; Arendelle didn't need a cursed Queen such as her. It seemed to Elsa that, even with her in full control of her powers, that they seemed destined to do nothing but bring pain and misery to those around her.

* * *

Elsewhere, Tinkerbell is showing her best friend Terrance her latest invention that she had made for him: a special cup that quickly and evenly distributes pixie dust over a wide area when the crank on the side of the handle is turned. As Terrance examined the device, Tink couldn't help but think of the question that her newly-discovered sister Periwinkle had asked her last year: whether or not Terrance was her "boyfriend". Even now Tinkerbell did not know how to answer that question. Up until then she'd merely thought of him as her best friend, but she could not deny that she enjoyed his company in a way that was different than how she liked to hang out with her other friends like Fawn and Rosetta, and even different than how she liked her other male friends and fellow tinkers Clank and Bobble.

Tink could also not deny that she greatly wanted to impress him with her cleverness and tinker talent, even more so than any other fairy in Pixie Hollow, and that she often got flustered when an invention did not work out as planned when she's demonstrating it to him. She had not thought much of these quirks in her personality, nor about how Terrance often differed to her about things, or even about the way that she felt badly after she lost her cool (as she has been known to do) and wound up in a fight with him about anything. Now Perri had Tink thinking that her friendship with him might possibly be something more, yet she could never find the moment or the courage to talk to him about it.

Thankfully, the pixie dust spreader did not jam, fall apart, or even make a big mess like Tink feared it might, but instead worked just as she had designed it to. Of course, she had to give some credit to her newest friend Zarina, a dustkeeper fairy like Terrance who liked experimenting as much as Tink, and whose input had proven invaluable during this project. However, before Tink could find out what Terrance's opinion was on this newest invention, an unexpected visitor suddenly flew in through the door, her appearance acting like a cold wind putting a damper on the occasion.

Vidia had never been the most friendly member of Tink's circle of friends. In fact, for a while it seemed that Vidia' s cold and biting personality, her distain of the tinker fairies' ability as a "true talent", and her jealousy over the fact that Tink's potential with her talent had shined brighter than Vida's with her own, seemed destined to make her and Tink bitter enemies. All that changed one summer when Vidia, trying to teach Tink a lesson about how dangerous her curious nature was, inadvertently got Tink "captured" by the human girl Elizabeth Griffins and led Tink's friends in an effort to recue her. During the course of that rescue, Vidia herself got captured by Lizzie's scientist father while saving Tink from the same fate, and Tink led her friends to help Lizzie stop her father from turning Vidia over to his colleagues to be treated as a specimen.

Since that day, she and Vidia had a friendship of sorts. Vidia was still rather biting and sarcastic, and she apparently still didn't think much of the tinkers' "talent" (a fact that showed itself to still be relevant when Vidia had temporarily became a tinker fairy following the interruption of the Four Seasons Festival), but Tink could tell that Vidia cares in her own unique way. Despite this, Tink could not think of a single reason why Vidia would come and seek _her_ out, unless Tink had done something wrong that needed fixing (and she swears that she hadn't….recently.)

Before Tink could decide how she wanted to ask Vidia why she came here, Vidia said hurriedly in a frantic tone that made her sound out-of-breath, "Tink….the pirates….they're back!"

With those words Vidia made Tink recall the previous time the pirates in question had appeared, and how they had nearly brought disaster to Pixie Hollow. Without another word Tink flew past Vidia out the door, with Vidia and Terrance following closely behind. It wasn't long before they were joined by Tink's other friends: Iridessa, Fawn, Rosetta, Silvermist, and Zarina.

"We came as soon as we heard!" Sil said as she joined them, not sounding her usual cool and collected self.

"Why on earth did they come back?" Fawn asked frantically.

"Yeah, didn't those ol' boys get enuff humiliation the last time we sent them packin'?" Rose added.

"Well, whatever the reason, I'm gonna make James and his men regret that they ever even _thought_ of returning to Neverland!" Zarina said angrily, grinding her hand into her palm.

Zarina's tone brought Tinkerbell up short, and all her friends stopped with her as Tink said, "Uh, Zarina, I think that it would be best of you went back to Queen Clarion and…"

"What!?" Zarina interrupted, looking taken-aback and sounding insecure, "Tink, don't you trust me?"

Tink knew what she was referring to: during the Four Seasons Festival, it was Zarina who had helped the pirates steal the blue pixie dust (upon which all fairy life depends) when they'd taken her in (after she'd run away when one of her experiments went wrong) and supposedly made her their Captain. It was only later that they'd learned that James the "cabin boy" had lied to Zarina about their friendship, that he'd been serving as the pirates' captain all along, and that they'd only been using her to get their hands on the dust.

No, without a doubt Tink didn't believe that she'd betray them to the pirates again. However, rather than telling her the real reason she didn't want Zarina along for the investigation, Tink said instead, "Of course I trust you, Zarina, which is why we need you to go back to Queen Clarion and warn her that the pirates are here, and to stay with her to make sure that she and the Pixie Dust Tree stay safe. If the pirates are after the pixie dust again, then those two are sure to be their primary targets. Meanwhile. I'm going to take the others to snoop around their ship, to see if we can find out exactly what their plans are this time."

"I…I'm sorry, Tink," Zarina said abashedly, "You're right, I don't know what I was thinking."

"It's all right, I do understand," Tink assured her as she placed a hand on her shoulder, "but we have to go into this thing with both eyes open. We can't always rely on being lucky. So make sure that the Queen stays safe and we'll let you know what we learned when we get back. Then we can make sure that James pays together."

"Of course, thank you!" Zarina said gratefully, then she flew off quickly towards the giant tree.

Once Zarina was out of earshot, Dess said quietly to Tink, "Don't you trust Zarina?"

Tink looked her friend in the eyes as she confessed, "I trust her to not make the same mistakes as before, but I'm afraid that her anger over James's betrayal may be clouding her judgment, which is not the best state of mind to have upon entering a stealthy infiltration mission."

"You're right, Tink," Vidia said wryly, "One hothead in our group is more than enough on this mission!"

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Tink said defensively, quite aware of what Vidia meant. However, Vidia flew off laughing rather than answering, and Tink and the others followed her out to where the Jolly Roger was anchored.

* * *

As Tink and the others caught up to her, Vidia waved them over to the large window set in the ship's aft side as she whispered loudly, "Guys, come take a look at this!"

As Tink went over to look into the Captain's cabin along with the others, the first thought that went through Tink's head was that the pirates had captured a winter fairy, ripped off her wings, and stuffed her into a cage that hung over a cage by a chain over an open fire, for that's what the sobbing young woman appeared like to her. However, as Tink compared the cage to its surroundings, Tink figured that she must be human as she was much too large to be a fairy of either type. Still, even with her limited exposure to humans, Tink could not get over the initial notion that she was somehow one of them, for she had never known any human that young to have hair that white.

"Who is she?" Sil asked her friends.

"_What_ is she" added Fawn.

"Well, apparently she's no fashionista," Rose criticized, "I mean, would y'all look at that_ dress_ she's wearing!"

"Rose!" Dess chided her, "I don't think that she dressed_ herself_ in that! Obviously the _pirates_ stuffed her in that frock when they grabbed her!"

"Oh! Of course!" Rose said as she chuckled, sounding both embarrassed and abashed, "I knew that."

"Well, whoever she is, she's apparently in trouble," Tink said as she took charge, "so I say that we save any debates over who and what she is for until after we get her out of here. Agreed?" When the others nodded their agreement, Tink reached her arm in through the crack in the window sill to unlatch the hook holding it closed, then the others helped her pull the window open enough for them all to slip inside.

Apparently the young woman must have either heard something or felt the shift in temperature, for as Vidia followed the last of them in the young woman lifted her tear streaked face as she called out, "Who's there?"

"Hi," Tink called out, "Sorry if we startled you. My name is Tinkerbell, this here is Iridessa, and over here…."

Tink trailed off as the young woman's face clouded over in confusion. "Tink, I don't think she understands us," Dess said as she stated the obvious, "She must be a human, despite her….wintery appearance."

"Of course," Tink said in realization, then she turned back to the girl as she said with a fair amount of gesturing, "I know you might not understand what I'm saying, but we are going to get you out of here." Then, over to her friends, Tink said, "Sil, could you get this fire out while I work on this lock?"

"On it," Sil acknowledged as she turned back towards the window.

While it was apparent that the girl could not understand what Tink and her friends were saying, it soon became apparent through their actions what their intent was. However, her response was the last one that Tink or the others would have ever expected.

"Wait, stop!" the girl cried out so suddenly and loudly that Tink had lost her grip on the tumbler and would have fallen into the fire if the girl hadn't reached through the bars to catch her. Sil, on the other had, had lost her grip in the glob of seawater floating above her, which had fallen directly on her and got her so soaked that she ended up falling to the floor, her wings too wet to let her fly.

The girl glanced fearfully at the door, then when nobody came through she lowered her voice to a whisper and said, "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you. Are you guys okay?" When both Tink and Sil nodded yes, the girl continued, "Thank goodness. Listen, I guess you guys are fairies, and that can understand me even tough I can't understand you, and I get that you're trying to rescue me for whatever reason, but you can't. Please?"

"What?" Tink said in astonishment, "Why not?"

"The pirates, you see," the girl continued, "they didn't just grab me but my younger sister as well…"

"Your sister!?" Tink yelped as she fluttered back in surprise.

"…and if I don't stay here and to as they say, then they're going to kill her!" the girl continued, her voice breaking on the last word as she dissolved into sobs.

"No!" Sil cried out.

"Those monsters!" Fawn growled angrily.

"Oh my, hon," Rose said in concern, "This 'ere's quite the pickle!"

"I'll say!" Vidia agreed as she turned to Tink and asked, "How do you think we should proceed..?" Vidia trailed off as she saw that Tink's face had turned a shade of red that she had never seen before, even when Tink had been at her angriest.

"Tink?" Vidia said in concern just as Tink raced out the window, yelling, "EveryoneStayWithHerI'llBeRightBack!"

"Tink!" Vidia called out to her, but Tink had flown past the side of the window and vanished from sight.

"Yep!" Terrance commented casually, as if this was something he'd been expecting, "There she goes!"

Vidia growled in frustration, then she turned to the others and said, "Terrance, could you help Sil get her wings dried while she makes sure the girl gets plenty of fresh water? The fire should help them dry faster." When they both nod in agreement, Vidia turned to the rest and continued, "The rest of you keep out of sight in case anyone else comes in. I'm going to reign in our tinker before she gets us all discovered and captured." Then Vidia flew out the window as well.

At first Vidia was hopeful that Tink had went straight to Pixie Hollow in order to get some more help, but when she saw no sign of her Vidia turned her attention back to the ship where she spotted Tink zipping from porthole to porthole. Vidia caught up to Tink just as she was about to look into the last porthole on the starboard side.

"Tink!" Vidia whispered fiercely, "What are you doing!?"

"I'm trying to see if I can find either that girl's sister or that no-good, turncoat…" Tink finished as she looked into the porthole that she'd reached, "Ah, speak of the silver-tongued devil!"

Vidia looked through the porthole as well and, indeed, saw that James was in the room along with most of the pirates they'd seen before in addition to some new faces.

When Vidia spotted Tink furiously trying to open the porthole, she tackled Tink and pinned her to the side of the ship. "Have you lost your mind!?" Vidia furiously whispered at Tink.

"I'm going to give that James a piece of my mind, and I'll make him tell me where the girl's sister is!" Tink whispered back at her.

"Like he'd understand anything you said anyway!" Vidia countered back, "Let's just listen, okay!? That'll get us information faster than you going and getting us busted!"

Tink grunted angrily as she conceded, "Fine!" Then they both put their ears to the ship and listened to the raucous laughter coming from inside.

As one of the only men joining in the laughter, James was sulking as one of the new faces amongst the crew, a slightly rotund man who was also not laughing but was still smiling as he approached James and said, "Aw, cheer up, Jimmy! I'm sure that the Captain will let you go on the next raid!"

"You don't understand, Smee, as you were just brought on by the Captain as the new cabin boy, but I _was_ the Captain once!" James said back to him, "In fact it was thanks to me that the Captain had found this place to begin with, and I know this island better than anyone on board! I should be allowed to go!"

"You only served as a substitute Captain," one of the other pirates said back at him, "and a rather poor substitute at that! You're just lucky that the Captain had taken a shine to your idea of coming back here for that dust, and that he kept you on as his Boatswain instead of dumping you on some nowhere island. Preferably one infested with scorpions!"

As the laughter in the room grew louder than ever, Tink muttered, "So he wasn't even the real captain? Huh, figures! What had that sleazoid not lied about?"

"Tink! Shhh!" Vidia shushed her and they both began to listen again.

"Instead of ragging on me," James angrily exclaimed, "why don't you layabouts go and check on the other girl!?"

The laughter grew even louder as Smee asked, "What other girl?"

"The sister of the one the Captain is keeping toasty in his room!" James explained, apparently unaware of what all the laughing was about.

"And that, Jimmy, is why you ain't Captain no more!" another pirate responded, "There ain't no other girl!"

"What!?" James said in surprise, "You louts_ didn't_ grab her!?"

"Are you mad, James? The guards were all over the place by the time we got this one!" another pirate retorted, "Even if we could have gotten past them to grab the other bird, they would have sent every ship they had after us, chased us to the ends of the earth! By leaving them one bird in hand, we made sure that they had to waste time and men making sure that one stayed safe, and what few ships they sent after us we lost easily! Anyway, we got the talented one, and so long as she thinks we got her sister she'll do whatever we say!"

"But as soon as she learns that we lied, then all bets go out the window and we'll be on the receiving end of her wrath!" James countered back

"Which is why she _ain't_ finding out!" another pirate argued, "She does this one job for us, then we knock her out, chain her up, then send her down to Davy Jones!"

As the laughter resumed, Vidia saw by the reflection of the porthole that Tink's face was turning red again and reached out to grab Tink's arm before she could try to open the porthole again.

"Vidia!" Tink said in protest, "Didn't you just hear what those monsters said!?"

"I did!" Vidia confirmed, "Which is why we need to get back to the cabin and let the girl know so she'll let us get her out of here!"

Slowly Tink's face resumed its regular shade as she exhaled and said "You're right, Vidia, let's go!"

They then flew off back towards the aft of the ship. As a result, the did not see James look over at the porthole just moments after they left it, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

* * *

As Tink and Vidia got back to the cabin, they saw Terrance Trying to fan Sil's wings dry while the girl was turning down a levitated globule of water, saying, "Thank you, but I've had plenty now. You guys should go, though, before the Captain gets back and does anything to hurt you!"

Vidia, who apparently could keep quiet any longer, burst into the room saying, "Guys, you won't believe this, but it turns out that James isn't the Captain of this ship after all! He had only been filling in for the real Captain while he was away!"

"Don't tell me that it really was Zarina after all!" exclaimed Terrance.

"I don't think so," Vidia replied, "The pirates referred to their Captain as a 'he' after all."

"But that's not what's important!" interrupted Tink, "The pirates had lied about having the girl's sister captive in order to gain her cooperation, and once she does whatever she'd promised to do they're going to kill her!"

"No!" Fawn exclaimed.

"We have to get her out of here!" added Dess.

"Well, good luck with that," said Rose in dismay, "We've been talking to 'er ever since you two took off, and even though she seems to find our presence comforting, she doesn't seem to understand us any better now than she did when we first showed up 'ere."

"Leave that to me!" Tink offered, "I've had plenty of experience talking to Lizzie, I should be able to get this girl to understand." Then once she had made sure she had the girl's undivided attention, Tink gestured towards the girl, then lowered her left hand down till it was about chest high, as if her palm was resting on something rounded.

"My sister…" the girl guessed.

"Yes!" Tink confirmed, then she lowered herself until she was hovering in a prone position, as if she were asleep.

"…is dead!?" the girl exclaimed in dismay.

"No, no, no!" Tink said frantically as she sprung back up, waving her hands before her.

"Good job, Master!" Vidia said sarcastically, "You really must teach that to me sometime!"

"Shut up, Vidia!" Tink replied to her, "She's just keyed up about her sister, that's all. There must be a better way to get her to…got it!"

Tink the flew over to the Captain's desk. Then, after wrestling the log book open, Tink tore a blank page out of it, then tore a square section out of that page and began to fold it. When she flew back in front of the girl, Tink was wearing a paper sailor's hat that she'd made. She then placed one hand over her eye and made the meanest face she could manage.

"The pirates?" the girl guessed again.

Tink shook her head yes, then she hovered in the prone position again.

"…are sleeping?" she guessed.

"No," Tink said as she shook her head, then she resumed her prone position, while making sure that the girl could see that her eyes were open.

"…are lying down to sleep?" the girl amended.

Tink shook her head, then she slowly brought her two index fingers closer together, shortening the distance between them.

"…are lying down?" the girl amended again.

Tink repeated the shortening motion with her hands again.

"…are lying?" the girl tried again.

"Yes!" Tink confirmed with jubilation.

"The pirates lied about having my sister hostage?" the girl guessed.

"You got it!" Tink confirmed again.

The girl looked pensive again as she muttered to herself, "Of course the pirates lied! What did you expect, Elsa?" Then she turned back to Tink and asked, "But what of my sister? Do you know what had happened to her?"

Tink nodded yes, then went back over to the desk. After another moment spent tearing and folding, she then had given hats to most of the others. After handing her own hat to Terrance, he and Vidia were now wearing pirate hats, with Vidia glaring daggers at her, while Fawn, Dess and Rose were wearing hats that were more rounded and came to a peak. Only Tink and Sil were left not wearing a hat. Then Tink had Terrance sling her over his shoulder, and he and Vidia were chased across the desk by Rose, Fawn and Dess, away from Sil.

"I should make you walk the plank, Tink, making me a pirate!" Vidia growled at Tink, who giggled as she was unable to stay in character.

"So you're saying that the guards had chased the pirates away before the could grab my sister too?" the girl hazarded.

"That's it exactly!" Tink said proudly as she nodded, then to the others she added, "Isn't she smart?"

Then, as they watched, the girl underwent a change. It wasn't a physical transformation, more like something changed within her; Despair was replaced by hope, fear was replaced by courage, helplessness was replaced by determination. As she drew herself up as much as she could considering her small cell, the young woman assumed a bearing that, to Tink's eyes, appeared almost regal. "Okay fairies," the young woman asked in a voice that was stronger than her body apparently was, "get me out of here, please."

Tink and the others needed no further encouragement, as Tink went back to work on the lock while Sil and Vidia worked together to put out the fire; Sil by dousing it with water and Vidia by removing the air around the blaze. The flame was mere embers around the time that a loud click was heard and the cage door swung open. As the girl gingerly lowered herself down from the cage, Rose saw that she was barefoot and caused some shoots to sprout up from the planks in the floor and wrap themselves around the girl's feet, giving her what appeared to be a pair of green woven slippers.

As the girl wobbled and her legs threatened to give out from under her, Tink was afraid that she wouldn't be able to walk, let alone run. However, her strength seemed to return to her more and more with each tentative step she took. "Okay, girls, we need to try and find all of us a way out of here," Tink said as she flew over to where Sil was standing up on the desk, "Are your wings dry enough to fly yet, Sil?"

"I think so," Sil answered uncertainly as she tried to flutter up with only marginal success.

"Here," Tink said as she put Sil's arm around her shoulders, "let me help."

Just then a figure burst through the door and something swung down towards the desk, and Tink and Sil found themselves caught in a fishing net on a pole. As the figure twisted the net in his hand to close the opening, and he lifted it up to his face, Tink saw that it was James! A cruel smile playing upon his face, James said in a satisfied tone, "I thought I'd heard the tinkle of little fairy intruders! I'm almost sorry that other fairy did not come with you, I would have loved to have paid her back for the pain and humiliation her betrayal had caused me! At least, now, the Captain will have to…" James trailed off as he saw out of the corner of his eye that the cage that had held their prisoner was now empty, its fire out, its door wide open. Directing his full attention upon it, James asked in disbelief, "What in the name of…?"

Vidia took full advantage of James distraction by flying at full speed and ramming him in the abdomen with her shoulder, knocking the wind out of him and causing him to loosen his grip enough on the net to allow Tink and Sil to fly out of it. Just as they emerged, however, Tink saw a sight that caused her to freeze in astonishment, and judging by the looks on her friends' faces she wasn't alone in that.

The girl, who was now perched up by the open rear window, had a fierce look upon her face as she aimed both open palms at James and unleashed a blast of power at the floor that covered it entirely in ice. James, who'd still been hunched over from Vidia's attack, now found himself slipping and sliding as he tried to not fall.

"Girls!" Tink asked them in wide-eyed astonishment, "Are you seeing this?"

As they watched, the young woman had a snowball form in her hand, which she then hurled with enough force into James' face that his head flew backwards with the momentum and his feet flew forward out from under him, resulting in him landing hard upon his back.

"Seein', darlin'," Rose said in a dumbstruck tone, "Still workin' on belevin'!"

As the dazed James fought a losing battle to remain conscious, Elsa said to him in a firm and angry tone, "You can tell your Captain that the deal is off!" Then she leapt out of the window.

"No!" Tink screamed as she and the others flew over there, convinced that the last that they'd see of the girl was her sinking beneath the waves, her tired muscled unable to keep her afloat. Instead, they saw her unleash another blast of power that turned the surface of the water at the ship's aft to ice, a pile of snow cushioning her fall. Then she sprinted across towards the edge of the ice floe, the surface of the water turning to ice the instant her foot made contact.

"Maybe she really _is_ a winter fairy!" a stunned Sil hypothesized.

As she heard the sounds of a commotion drawing ever nearer to the door, Tink said, "I don't know, but I suggest we follow her example! Come on!"

As they caught up to the girl, Tink and the others were panting and out of breath, and for all her displays of power the girl also looked ready to drop. However, no sooner did they reach the shore did Tink and the others hear the loud clanging of an alarm bell coming from the ship.

"Well," Rose said sardonically, "I guess those boys realize they don't have their prisoner no mo'!"

"We need to get her hidden in the jungle until she's strong enough to follow us into Pixie Hollow," Tink announced as she grabbed ahold of the girl and tried to guide her. However, as the others joined in to try and help, it became apparent the young woman wasn't done. As she raised her hands into the air, beads of sweat raising up on her forehead, a swirl of cold air surrounded her that caused Tink and her other warm fairy friends instinctively back away from her, then the watched as the ice bridge that had formed during her headlong flight across the water started to break up and dissolve into the air. All except for the portion by the ship, that is: that section grew and surrounded the ship even as it climbed up the sides, only stopping when it had enclosed the life rafts and extended the railing into a wall that was taller than the tallest man. Then she hit the sails with another blast of power that froze them in place. Finally, with an effort that seemed to be taking what little strength she had left, the woman summoned a huge arctic wind that turned the vessel away from Neverland , snapped the anchor from its chain, and sent the vessel to quickly recede over the horizon. Finally, when the ship was little more than a dot, the girl collapsed into unconsciousness.

"Is….Is she…?" Fawn stammered in concern.

Tink put her ear to the girl's chest, then she sighed and smiled as she said, "She's out cold, but I think that she's going to be all right."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness." Fawn said gratefully.

"That's a relief!" breathed Sil.

"Well, now that that's over, that brings us back to our original question;" interjected Dess, "Just who and what is she?"

"I don't know, but I know where to start," Tink said as she turned to Terrance, "Do you still have that thing I made for you?"

"Sure, Tink!" Terrance said as he unclipped the cup-device from his belt and handed it over to her. Then she held the cup out towards her friends as she said, "Okay everyone, we're going to need to pool together what little pixie dust we have left in order to make this work!"

As everyone poured their dust into Tink's cup, Vidia asked, "Just what is it that you're going to do?"

As Tink cranks the handle and covers her in a fine blanket of pixie dust, the girl begins to float as Tink explains, "We're going to get her over to Pixie Hollow and to Queen Clarion. If there's anybody who can help us find the answers we need, and who can get this girl the help_ she_ needs, it's her!"


	2. 2) Bonds

**Bonds**

As dawn broke and Tink and the others made their way though the Summer Meadow towards the Pixie Dust Tree, it soon became apparent that word of the pirates' arrival has spread. Fairies from all over Pixie Hollow came out and stared as Tink and her friends towed the floating young woman along like a parade float.

"Oh my, this sure is awkward!" Rose said as she looked like she wanted to hide her face, "If ah knew we were gonna have an audience like this ah would have insisted that we get the girl a new dress first!"

"Rose!" Dess chided her.

"Ah'm just sayin' that ah don't think she'd be any happier bein' seen in this thing any more than any of us would, sugah!" Rose said defensively.

"Perhaps, but we need to observe priorities here, Rose," Tinkerbell gently criticized, "Get her help first, then an improved wardrobe somewhere on down the line."

"Okay, okay, I understand," Rose said aloud, then she muttered to herself, " 'Course ah'm not sure ah could stand to wake up to such abject humiliation."

As they approached the Pixie Dust Tree, Zarina and Queen Clarion came out to greet them, with Zarina hugging Tink as she said, "Tink, everyone, you're all okay! I was so worried when you wouldn't let me come along with you to the ship!"

"Ah, it was nothing! Those dumb pirates couldn't even catch a cold!" Tink said nonchalantly, then when she caught Sil looking at her askance Tink added with a gesture at the floating girl, " 'Though we did have a little help in getting out of there."

"And who is this?" Queen Clarion.

"We actually don't know," Tink confessed, "She was being held captive on the pirates' ship."

Tink then told them of how she and the others had found her in a cage over a roaring fire; how she wouldn't let them rescue her because of the harm she figured the pirates would bring upon her sister if she left; that it was only when Tink and Vidia learned toe truth, that the pirates had lied about having her sister, that they were finally able to get her free; how she and Sil nearly got caught if it weren't for Vidia and the girl; then finally how the girl used her powers to drive off the pirates before passing out.

"And what's worse," Tink finished, "is if we hadn't found and rescued her, if she had done what the pirated wanted, then they would have killed her!"

"I see. You and your friends did very well Tinkerbell," Queen Clarion said as she rested her hand on the crown of the girl's head, "You say that she had powers like a winter fairy?"

"More like a turbo-charged winter fairy!" Fawn said excitedly, still jazzed up by the events that happened, "You should have seen it, Queen Clarion; she covered the cabin's floor in ice just by pointing at it, grabbed a snowball out of thin air and threw it in James's face, froze and thawed the ocean like it was nothing, then turned the pirates' ship into an iceberg and blew it clear out of sight!"

"That does sound impressive, Fawn," Queen Clarion acknowledged, then she turned back to Tink and said, "You had said that the pirates had claimed to be holding the life of this girl's sister hostage in exchange for her doing something for them?"

Tink nodded yes, then when Queen Clarion got a troubled look on her face, Tink asked, "What's wrong? Do you know what it was?"

"Only speculations, none of which are good," the Queen responded, then when the girl began to moan and stir, the Queen continued, "but since the girl's stirring, it'll be better if we hear what it actually was from her own lips."

As the young woman sat up she first squinted as her eyes adjusted to the brightening morning light, then her eyes widened as she took in her unfamiliar surroundings.

"Good morning, young lady, I am glad to see that you appear to feel better," Queen Clarion said as soon as the girl noticed her, "I am Queen Clarion, and you are..?"

When the girl's face clouded in confusion, Tink explained, "She doesn't seem to understand us, in that she seems very human. But I've been able to communicate with her on a basic level."

"Then by all means, Tinkerbell," the queen asked smiling, "Could you ask her why the pirates grabbed her?"

"Of course," Tink responded.

As Tink Approached the young woman, her eyes lit up in recognition as she said, "You're one of the fairies who rescued me earlier! Sorry about passing out before I could thank you properly."

"Don't worry about it, anyone who's been through what you have and still managed to drive off a shipload of pirates deserves a quick nap!" Tink said with a dismissive wave, then she put on her pirate face again, grabbed Rose from behind and dragged her backwards a few steps, then she shrugged her hands into the air.

"Why did the pirates grab me?" The girl guessed. When Tink nodded that she was correct, the girl answered, "The captain said ne needed me to use my powers against the natives of some hidden island, who are apparently sensitive to the cold that I can produce, so that his men could get some treasure, apparently some sort of powerful dust. I didn't want to, but when he implied that the life of my sister was at stake I felt I had no choice but to agree."

"Oh my!" Fairy Mary said, having just joined them while trying to find out what the commotion was about.

"That pig!" Zarina snarled angrily.

"Oh dear," Queen Clarion said softly, her voice tinged with apprehension, "It was just what I was afraid it was."

Even though the girl could not understand their words, she apparently got enough meaning from the looks of fear and apprehension in everyone's faces as she asked, "It's that bad?" When Tink nodded yes, the girl continued, "I'm guessing that you are the natives that the pirates wanted me to get out of the way, but what would have happened if I had…you know…?"

To answer, Tink pointed at her own wings, then made a snapping motion with her hands. The girl gasped in horror as she guessed, "Your wings would have broken?" When Tink nodded yes, the girl continued, "And is there any way to fix…or to heal…?" to which Tink shook her head no.

For a few seconds, the young woman just stared at her own open hands, her eyes wide with shock and horror. Then her hands clenched into fists, her lips twisted into an angry snarl. As she slowly stood up and turned towards the east where the pirate ship had been anchored moments ago, a growl formed in her throat. Then, with a scream of rage, she unleashes a blast of power from one of her hands up into the sky in that general direction. This causes most of the onlookers to run off screaming in terror, though apparently the girl didn't notice yet as she bellowed, "I hope you all drown!" Of course Tink did not blame the others for being afraid; even though Tink knew who the young woman was mad at, she herself felt rather nervous about being this close to an angry and powerful human.

When the girl turned around and saw the fearful faces that had remained around her, she looked rather abashed about her outburst as she said apologetically, "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you fairies. It's just that if I had known exactly what the pirates wanted me to do, then I would have done more than freeze their ship and send it away; I would have froze them solid down to the last man! That's what I should have done!"

"No, child, you had done the right thing," Queen Clarion assured her as she drifted closer and patted the girl's hand, "Life is a precious gift, one that no person has the right to take away."

Even though the girl did not understand Queen Elsa's words, her gesture did seem to have a calming effect on her. As she smiled again, the girl said, "I almost forgot; you guys had risked your lives to save me, and I hadn't even introduced myself yet. I am Queen Elsa, from the kingdom of Arendelle."

"What?" Sil exclaimed in surprise.

"A queen?" Vidia said in shock.

"Well ah'll be honeysuckled and dipped in dew!" Rose said.

Looking down at herself, Elsa said, "I guess I don't look much like a queen at the moment, do I?" When Tink smiles and shakes her head no, Elsa continues, "Well, I feel strong enough now, and I'm more than tired of this itchy sackcloth dress the pirates stuffed me in, so…"

All the fairies gasp in amazement as, with a flourish of Elsa's hands, Elsa's ugly sackcloth dress seemingly was transformed into a beautiful sparkling blue gown with a crystalized bodice, powder blue sleeves, and a transparent glitter trail cape imprinted with snowflake designs.

"Oh, wow!" Dess exclaimed in wonder.

"Now _that_, girls, is _my_ kind of talent!" an impressed Rose said, admiring Elsa's new look.

As Tink ran her hands over the dress, she said, "It's like frost, it doesn't even feel that cold!" Then Tink seemed to remember herself as she bowed and backed away saying, "I'm sorry! Please forgive my impudence, your Majesty!"

Even though she didn't understand her words, Elsa interpreted Tink's actions correctly as she smiled kindly and said, "It's all right, you can touch it. I don't mind."

While Tink's friends confirmed for themselves what Tink said about Elsa' dress, Queen Clarion called Tink over and said, "Why don't you and your friends show Queen Elsa around Pixie Hollow? It might help take her mind off things?"

"That's a great idea, your Majesty!" Tink said enthusiastically, "I know just where to start!" As Tink flew over and took Elsa's left pinkie in both hands, indicating she should follow, Zarina asked her, "Where are we going?"

"Queen Clarion thinks we should show her around Pixie Hollow," Tink explained, "so I thought, considering the nature of her powers, that we might start with the Winter Woods!"

Vidia smiled a knowing smile as she wryly said, "You mean you want to introduce her to Perri."

"Well, why not?" Tink said defensively, then she began ticking off on her fingers, "They both have sisters, they both have wintery powers…"

As her friends chuckle at Tink's rationalizations, Vidia chuckles once as she says, "Never mind, Tink. Let's go visit your sister."

While Tink and the others lead Elsa away from the Pixie Dust Tree, during which Rose can be overheard saying, "I wonder if Sled's busy today…", Fairy Mary leaned in closely to Queen Clarion and asked softly, with a note of trepidation in her voice, "This isn't over yet, is it my Queen?"

"No, Fairy Mary, I fear that it isn't," Queen Clarion confirmed in just as soft of a voice, "not if the pirates went through the trouble of kidnapping such a powerful queen from her own kingdom. They'll most likely be returning far too soon, and they'll be angrier than before."

* * *

As the Fairies led her forward, Elsa could not help but admire the strange and beautiful place all around her. She wanted to ask them how a place like this came to be, particularly when they crossed over a clearly defined line where the leaves went from being green and full to where they were crisp and colored, as if she were stepping from summer into autumn. However, she could not comprehend the tinkling of the fairies' speech, and she currently didn't want to have to tear her eyes from the view to try and interpret the green fairy's pantomime answers.

Then, as the sounds of running water got louder, Elsa reached the edge of the forest they were in and her heart nearly stopped. On the other side of a small brook, which Elsa felt that she could almost have leaped across, the land was covered in ice and snow! Even the small log that seemed to serve as a bridge of sorts was half covered in snow, with the half on their side free of even a single flake.

"Did….did I do that?" Elsa asked her guides.

The fairy in the green dress just smiled up at her and shook her head no as she started leading her forward again. As they approached, Elsa could see some fairies gathering on the other side of the brook. At first Elsa is confused by this, as she'd been led to believe that cold weather, like what's on that side of the brook, would harm the wings of the fairies. Then Elsa noticed that those fairies were very different from the fairies that were currently leading her. For one thing, while the fairies that were leading her were all wearing very different outfits from one another, the ones on the snowy side were all wearing similar outfits that appeared to be made of leaves that were nearly as blue as her own dress. Also, only a few of the ones she could see over there had black hair, the rest having hair as white as her own.

Most of the winter fairies, as Elsa now thought of them as, simply stood and stared at her. Only one of them, a youngish-looking fairy who had pom-poms on her feet similar to the ones on the green fairy's, and whose white hair was in an up-do, paid her only a cursory glance before her face lit up when she saw Elsa's guides. Then the fairy raced across the clearing towards the log bridge, and the green fairy, who had been guiding her up until that point, let Elsa go in order to meet her. As they neared each other, Elsa saw both fairies' wings start to glow even as they embraced each other across the border between autumn and winter, then they started talking quickly in that strange tinkling language of theirs.

Finally, the green fairy tuned back towards Elsa and made the pantomime gesture which she'd identified before as referring to her little sister Anna, then the fairy gestured between herself and the one just on the other side of the border.

"This is your sister?" Elsa asked the green one. When the fairy nodded yes, Elsa focused on the other one and smiled as she extended her hand in greeting from her side as she said, "It's very nice to meet you! I'm Queen Elsa of Arendelle, and I owe your sister much for rescuing me from the pirates."

The winter fairy smiled and started to extend her own hand, then she retracted it again, apparently reluctant to cross the border. "What's wrong? It's okay, I promise I don't bite!" Then the winter fairy said something else while looking up at the border, and while Elsa was no closer to understanding their language, her mind made a leap in intuition as she said in astonishment, "Oh, I think I understand: you can't cross because the warm weather harms your wings, just as the cold weather harms theirs."

The winter fairy sadly nodded yes as Elsa's mind kicked into overdrive. Then she looked back up at them and said, "Maybe there's something I can do to help." As the fairies looked on her in confusion, Elsa summoned up her power and, with a gesture of her hands, made a tiny slow cloud appear a couple of inches over the winter' fairy's head. While the others looked on in astonishment, the fairy reached towards the cloud hanging over her head and caught one of its flurry flakes in her hand. "You should be able to come over now," Elsa assured her, "That'll protect you."

The winter fairy stepped out tentatively at first, then when she saw that the cloud had followed her across, its flakes still falling on the autumn side, the winter fairy stepped out fully to embrace her sister more warmly. "I don't know if it'll still work for you once I go back home," Elsa explained, "but as long as I'm still here…"

Elsa didn't get to finish, as both fairies tackled her simultaneously in a group hug, their combined arm lengths barely able to reach across her heart. As their wings overlapped and touched, the wings' glow suddenly flared bright white and Elsa heard what she could have sworn was the sound of a baby laughing. Even stranger, Elsa felt something like one of Julian's sparks of static electricity entering her heart, only this 'spark' felt ice cold. This was unusual for Elsa because she _never_ felt cold, not like that!

All these things were driven from her mind, however, as she heard the winter fairy saying gratefully, "Thank you! Oh, thank you!"

"What did you just say?" Elsa asked the winter fairy in shock and astonishment.

"I…I said 'Thank you'?" The winter fairy said hesitantly, afraid she might have offended her.

"I….I understood you!" Elsa breathed in wonder, "I heard you say 'Thank you'!"

The green fairy locked her wide eyes with Elsa's as she asked, "Can you understand me?"

"Yes!" Elsa confirmed as her heart filled up with delight, "I can understand you perfectly!"

"My name is Tinkerbell," Tink said still wide eyed, "this is my sister Periwinkle!"

"Tinkerbell! Periwinkle!" Elsa confirmed with a nod, her face splitting in a wide grin.

"She understands them!" Elsa heard the fairy with the long ponytail and the orange and amber outfit say.

"Yes!" Elsa confirmed, "And I can understand all of you as well! How is this possible!"

The fairy with the dark hair and the lavender outfit said with a lopsided smile and a wry tone, "I would guess that the freaky 'sister-power' that Tink and Perri share somehow formed a bridge between Perri's frost talent and your own winter powers, and thus linking you to the rest of us as well."

"So I'll be able to understand what the rest of you say now?" Elsa asked.

"I guess so," Tinkerbell confirmed, "at least until the effect wears off, if it ever does!"

Elsa smiled, then she grew a more serious expression as she said, "then could you take me back to where I first woke up?" At the confused expressions on the faces of Tink and the others, Elsa asked, "The fairy I saw there dressed in gold, I'm guessing that she's your queen or something?"

Tinkerbell nodded and said, "Queen Clarion."

Elsa nodded in understanding as she continued, "Now that we can understand one another, I have some information to share concerning what I've figured out about the pirates' plans, and I don't think that we have much time to waste."

"Okay, but before we go," The fairy in the rose petal dress said as her eyes locked on those of a handsome black-haired male fairy on the winter side, "do you think that we could take some of them along?"

"Oh please, oh please, oh please, oh please, oh please?" a bubbly, white-haired winter fairy asked as she bounced up and down in excitement.

"I don't see why not," Elsa agreed, "I'm certain this will concern everyone here."

"Then you might as well include me as well, your Highness," said a white haired winter fairy as he flew in on a snowy owl and landed beside the winter side of the log bridge.

The Black haired female winter fairy gasped and bowed as she said, "Lord Milori!"

As he dismounted and smoothed his feathered cape behind him, Lord Milori said, "I just received word from the snowy owls of the pirates' attempted incursion and how Tinkerbell and the others helped to foil their plans by rescuing you. I assume that you've already concluded that the Pirates aren't ready to give up on their plans for this island, your highness?"

"That's correct, my Lord," Elsa confirmed in a grave mien, "I had bought us some time during my escape by freezing their ship and sending them away, but I fear that they desire something here too greatly to surrender so easily."

"I believe you're correct," Lord Milori agreed, "so the sooner you can work your powers to allow us to cross, the sooner we can together begin our plans to defend our home."

* * *

Meanwhile, out on the open seas, the sounds of chisels on ice can be heard ringing out as the pirates worked feverously to free their ship from it and restore it to working order.

"Put your backs into it, you mangy dogs!" Captain Black Adder bellowed, obviously in a much fouler mood, "The first man I see slacking I will run through and toss overboard, with him chained by the leg to the person directly to his left!"

The Captain then turned and entered his quarters, where James sat on a stool holding a damp cloth to the back of his head. "Now tell it to me again, James," the Captain growled, "What happened?"

"It was those blasted fairies, Captain!" James winced at the sound of his own voice, "They freed the girl and she escaped."

"And I understand the fairies' freeing her, as they are rather meddlesome creatures," the Captain glowered, "But why did the girl escape? I'm sure I'd made it clear to her what would happen to the sister if she didn't cooperate."

"The fairies must have overheard the men telling me that we didn't really have her sister, and I guess they had somehow revealed it to her," James hazarded, "Was that not true, Captain?"

"Nay, that was true, all right!" the captain confirmed, "What I want to know is why you didn't come straight to me with this information instead of trying to capture them yourself!"

"I…" James stammered, "…I thought that…"

"…if you had captured them and prevented their escape, then you'd prove your worth to me?" the Captain finished, "Well you certainly have done that, my lad! You've proven just how worthless you truly are!"

"B-b-but Captain..!" James stammered.

"Silence!" the Captain bellowed, "You are a fool, James Hook! You are vain and greedy and selfish, 'though I suppose that I am a greater fool for having kept you on as my Boatswain despite your apparent failure the last time you crossed paths with those flying pests!"

James's face had gone white as a sheet while the Captain, continuing his tirade, said, "If I did not need every hand available to salvage this situation, I would send you down to Davy Jones right now! As it stands, I'm stripping you of your title and busting you down to Cabin Boy! If you cannot prove to me that you are capable of acting as an integral part of this crew who's capable of following orders, then you will not live to see another port ever again! Am I clear!?"

James swallowed down the lump in his throat and stammered, "Y-y-yes, Captain!"

"Smee!" the Captain bellowed.

"Yes, Captain?" Smee said cheerfully as he entered, "You called?"

"I want you to show Cabin Boy James here the way down to your quarters!" the Captain ordered, "If he proves himself, then you and he will be bunkmates for a while!"

"Right away, Captain sir!" Smee said with a salute, then he patted James comradely on the back as he led the way, saying, "I can tell that you and I are going to be the best of friends, James!"

As the door closed behind them, the Captain slumped in his chair and turned to focus on the empty cage still hanging in his room, his voice soft, yet full of menace as he said, "Well, your Highness, it seems as though you had made your decision. If you had simply honored your end of the bargain, then we could have gotten through this with a minimal loss of life. Now things will end up getting very messy, and you will go to the grave knowing that every living thing that falls on my men's blades will be on your head."


	3. 3) The Calm

**The Calm**

"What are we going to do, my Queen?" Fairy Mary asked Queen Clarion, "If what you surmise is correct, then the pirates will surely be back for the Blue Pixie Dust, and we need what we have left to keep the Pixie Dust Tree revitalized until the next Autumn Revelry!"

"You're right, Fairy Mary, and those men will not care that all fairy life depends on it," Queen Clarion responded, "They would tear apart the island looking for it, perhaps even destroy the Pixie Dust Tree if they believed it hidden inside. We will have little choice but to defend our home."

"But we're not fighters, your Majesty!" Fairy Mary protested, "We have no skill in using our talents in combat, and our small stature isn't likely to do much against such big and mean humans like those!"

"Perhaps we can be of help," offered a deep and kind male voice behind the Queen.

Queen Clarion spun around and gasped in surprise when she saw who it was as she said, "Lord Milori?"

"My Queen," Lord Milori said softly with a bow. As he reached for her hand and tenderly kissed the knuckles, Queen Clarion blushed and stammered, "What….why….how…?"

"Our new human friend made it possible for us to cross the border without you having to use any of the Tree's magic or Tinkerbell crating another machine," Lord Milori answered while indicating the tiny snow cloud hanging over his head, "She said that she had some information as to what the pirates may be planning, so I insisted that she take me along."

As she looked past him Queen Clarion saw that a number of winter fairies had accompanied him, including Periwinkle, all with their own snow clouds, and that Elsa, along with Tinkerbell and her friends were with them. "That is right, your Majesty," Elsa said with a curtsy, "I fear that what I did to send the pirates away won't keep them gone for long, and I thought that you might be able to help me understand why the pirates want this dust stuff so badly that they would kidnap me to help them get it."

"You can understand us now, Queen Elsa?" Queen Clarion asked.

"Yes," Queen Elsa confirmed, "When I used my gift to let Periwinkle cross the border without harm, they both hugged me and their wings did….something to my heart. Ever since then, I've been able to understand everything you guys are saying."

"I see," Queen Clarion said with a glance at Tink and Perri, "Those two are certainly unique even amongst us fairies. As for why the pirates want our dust; as you had mentioned before, pixie dust can be considered to be very powerful, but it is an integral part of our life. It is what enables us to fly and use our magical talents to help with the changing of the seasons in the human world, and it helps us to awaken a fairy that arrives here after it is born."

"Awaken it…after it is born?" Elsa asked.

"When a baby laughs for the first time, that is when a fairy is born," Queen Clarion explained, "but it is only when they are sprinkled with pixie dust from the Tree that they truly become a fairy. Every laugh gives birth to s single fairy, and only the first one, so I send out my fast-flying fairies to use their power over the winds to guide them all here."

"But if it's only the first laugh that becomes a fairy, and the laugh only gives birth to one, then how can Tinkerbell and Periwinkle be sisters?" Elsa asked.

"Forgive me, I should have said that _most_ laughs give birth to only one," Queen Clarion corrected herself, "However, on extremely rare occasions, a child's first laugh is so powerful and full of delight and wonder, a single laugh cannot hope to contain it. When that happens, the laugh splits in two and, should both halves find their way here, then two fairies may be born from that one laugh."

"So that would mean that Tinkerbell and Periwinkle….are twins?" Elsa asked.

"Twins….yes, that human term would probably be most appropriate to describe the relationship between Tink and Perri," Queen Clarion confirmed, "There is still much that we don't know about fairies who are born this way, but we have seen that they do share a unique connection. They seem to have the ability to do things together that no fairy can do alone. You, your Highness, seem to have experienced this for yourself."

"I see. But what does all this have to do with why the pirates want it?" Elsa asked her.

"In addition to waking fairies who are born and giving us the power of flight," Queen Clarion explained, "it can also give inanimate objects the power of flight. Even humans and animals can fly when sprinkled with the dust, so long as they think happy thoughts. That was how Tink and the others brought you here when you passed out, even though you weigh so much more then they could carry."

"The power of flight!" Elsa said with a dreadful realization, "If the pirates could make their ship fly, then they would be unstoppable! No navy in the world could hope to bring down such a vessel!"

"Yes, that does sound dire," Queen Clarion agreed, "However, the pixie dust that comes from the tree does wear off after a while. Not quickly, mind you, but enough so that we remain dependent on it, which is why we must be mindful to keep it healthy and strong."

"There is another kind of pixie dust, however, and it is that which I believe that the pirates are after," Queen Clarion continued, "Once every eight years, during the Autumn Jubilee, we perform a ceremony during which we shine the light of the blue harvest moon through the moonstone. This creates the mysterious and powerful blue pixie dust which we use from then until the next Festival to keep the tree strong and producing the pixie dust that we depend upon."

"Like the aspect of fairy twins, there is much we don't know about the blue pixie dust. However, through Zarina's experiments, we know that when it is mixed with our yellow pixie dust and certain other ingredients it can simulate the talents of other fairies. It is even powerful enough to temporarily switch the talents of our fairies, which is something that's supposed to be impossible. We've never tested it for the purpose of flight, because we need it for maintaining the Pixie Dust Tree, but it may be possible that it could be used for that purpose and that it may not wear off the way that the tree's yellow pixie dust does. However, if we were to surrender it to them, then I fear that the tree will stop producing pixie dust. If that happens, no fairy will ever fly again, and there will be no new fairies ever. It will be the end of Pixie Hollow," Queen Clarion concluded.

Elsa was in shock. She already knew that the pirates were bad, the worst representations of the human race. But for them to end an entire civilization of benevolent beings just to satisfy their own greed and lust for power…!

"I feel bad, though," Queen Clarion said, breaking into Elsa's thoughts, "You have been put though so much because the pirates desire what we have, and yet we know so little about you. Tell me, how was it that you had come by your gifts? Was there a magical artifact involved?"

Elsa was surprised by this course of discussion. "No, not that I'm aware of," Elsa answered honestly, "I've had these powers for as long as I could remember. My parents said that I'd been born with them."

Then, before she knew it, Elsa was telling them her story; how her sister would frequently come to ask her to create a wintery playground, and how she would always oblige. How that fun time had ended when she accidentally struck her sister with her powers, and to save her life both the magic inflicted and the memories of such were removed from Anna's head. How she spent more than a decade in isolation due to the fear of harming anyone she cared about again, not even emerging to attend the funeral for her parents when they were lost at sea. How she'd reluctantly opened the gates for her official coronation when she came of age, only for her anxiety to cause her to lose control of her abilities again, this time exposing her to the public. How she had run away to the mountains and briefly found peace, only for her well-meaning sister to track her down there, causing Elsa's anxiety of cause yet another outburst of power that found it's way to Elsa's heart. How she'd been attacked by the guards of the Duke of Weselton on his orders, and during that attack she'd been captured by Anna's fiancée Hans. Then how she'd escaped the imprisonment, fell into despair when Hans told her that she'd killed her sister, then narrowly escaped execution by the duplicitous Hans when her sister (who wasn't dead yet) had sacrificed her chance to save herself to throw herself between them, freezing solid just before Han's blow landed (an act which ironically saved Anna's life in addition to her own.)

Then she told of more recent events, how she had been using her powers to the public benefit. How her sister had found true love in Kristoff. How the friend she'd created, Olaf, had been enjoying seasons that no snowman had ever done before. How during the Winter Festival a mysterious stranger, Julian, used his own abilities to give her the greatest gift imaginable: he saved her parents from drowning at sea three years ago and returned them to her. How the Duke had heard of that event and, jumping to the wrong conclusions once again, decided to invade her kingdom to have her destroyed as a dark witch. How Julian had summoned legendary warriors from China and, along with Elsa herself, fought alongside them to defend her kingdom until Hans' older brothers came (apparently to apologize for their bother's actions) and forced the Duke to concede defeat and to take responsibility for his own short sighted actions. Finally she wrapped things up with Julian's departure and her abduction by the pirates.

"…which is where you had found me," finished Elsa to Tinkerbell and her friends.

"My stars, that is just so sad!" Rose sniffed as she tried to dry her tears, which had yet to stop.

"No one should ever have to live in fear of their own Talent," Lord Milori said in agreement as he patted Elsa's hand comfortingly.

"It would seem that you've been through far more than we've realized," Queen Clarion said consolingly as she placed her hand alongside Lord Milori's on Elsa's own.

"Part of me thinks that I should just return the crown to my father when I get back home," Elsa confessed, "I nearly killed my sister twice, I've had two attempts on my life by a man who feared what I'm capable of and believed me evil, and I was kidnapped by pirates who sought to have me cause considerable harm to your people. It just seems that my powers are destined to bring pain and suffering whether I have control of them or not, so I don't think that Arendelle needs a Queen like me."

"I disagree," Lord Milori said, "I think Arendelle, or any kingdom really, would be lucky to have a queen like you."

"But, lord Milori…" Queen Elsa started to protest, but Lord Milori raised his finger to silence her as he continued, "Let's look at your reasons for renouncing the throne. You said that you had came close to killing your sister on two occasions with your powers, but according to your story those were both accidents, and was before you had learned how to control them. Not that you have that control, do you think that could ever happen again?"

"No, but…" Elsa answered, but Lord Milori raised his finger again as he continued, "So that's out. Now your other reasons were that one person's fear and ignorance drove him to try and kill you, and another kidnapped you because he wanted to use you as a weapon against us. Sadly, there's nothing that can be done about that. There will always be darkness in the world; those who try to destroy that which they fear and don't understand, and those who seek power at any cost. The choice you have is in how you deal with that darkness, and that choice determines the kind of person you will be. You can run and hide from it, hoping it will pass you by. You can fight fire with fire, using your enemies' tactics against them. Or you can make a stand against the darkness, shining your own light to keep the darkness at bay and make the world a little brighter."

"Now let's look at what you have done," Queen Clarion continued, "We know that you tried running away before, back when you accidentally exposed your powers to the public. How did that work out again?"

"I wound up plunging Arendelle into an eternal winter," Elsa said sheepishly.

"Exactly, and from I learned about you just by listening to you speak about them that you care about your people enough to not make such a mistake again," Queen Clarion stated, "Then there was the actions you had taken concerning the Duke and the pirates. When the Duke surrendered and was at your mercy, you could have had him executed for his treachery, yet you chose to allow him to pick exile in exchange for your giving aid to his people."

"It was actually my father's idea," Elsa reasoned.

"Perhaps, but the choice to go with that idea, to show mercy rather than pursue vengeance, was yours. You chose mercy. That demonstrates both wisdom and strength of character. Finally, when the pirates had kidnapped you and submitted you to the torture of their fiery cage, you could have chosen to get your revenge when you had escaped. Instead, you decided to simply send them away."

"But you heard what I'd said when I found out what would have happened if I'd done what they wanted. I wanted to kill them," Elsa countered.

Queen Clarion shook her head sympathetically as she said, "And no one here blames you for the anger you felt then. But when you were in the heat of the moment, when you had the opportunity and nobody would have blamed you for going to those extremes, you did not. Once again, you chose life rather than death. If only the world had more people with your generosity and wisdom. I think that you would be doing your kingdom and the world a great disservice by not remaining Queen. But nobody can force you to remain, the choice is ultimately your own."

Elsa sighed and smiled wryly as she said, "You two would make natural-born parents, you already have the 'guilt trip' down." For some reason, this statement had Queen Clarion blushing as Elsa continued, "All right then, I'll hold off on making any rash decisions just yet. After all, we still have to deal with those pirates before I can even think of returning home."

"Okay, now that that's settled, tell us more about this Julian fella, sugah!" Rose interjected, "He sounds like an absolute dish! Do you think you'll evah see him again?"

"I don't know," Elsa confessed, "He has to find his way back home to make things right there, and there's no telling if he'll be able to return."

"Because of his country's law demanding his life in exchange for his accidentally killing his brother?" Sil asked softly.

Elsa nodded yes as she continued, "Of course he's powerful enough to force them to let him leave if it comes to that, but I know he won't because that's the kind of person he is. So I'll just have to hope that his parents, the King and Queen, will be kind and forgiving enough to pardon him, or at least mitigate his sentence, so that he may return. Until then this pendant and the waypoint stone back home are the only things I have to remember him by."

"That's the one you told us about? The one that lets you call for Julian's help when you need it?" Tink asked while admiring the craftsmanship of the pendant around Elsa's neck. When Elsa nodded yes, Tink added, "Why didn't you use it when you were trapped onboard the pirates' ship?"

"At first I was going to, when I found myself unable to use my powers on the ship. But then the Captain told me of my sister, then I couldn't risk it," Elsa explained.

"And now?" Fairy Mary asked, still clearly distress about their ability to fight.

Elsa gazed at it for a moment, considering before she said, "No, I don't think so. Not yet. He gave it to me to use in situations that I cannot handle myself, and I don't believe we've yet reached that point. The pirates got the drop on me before, this time I'll be ready for them." She tucked the pendant beneath her neckline and patted it as she finished, "Let's call this plan B. Besides, think that it'd be too hard to see him again so soon just for him to leave again as quickly."

"That's a good idea," Queen Clarion agreed, "The fact that Neverland exists both everywhere and nowhere at once, accessible by following the second star to the right until the morning, has kept our island a relative refuge of safety for many years. However, with more and more groups like the pirates finding their way here, it's becoming of greater importance that my people learn how to defend their home from those who would violate it."

"And I have some ideas on how to go about that," Elsa said, "But before we begin, I have something to ask. I understand that you fairies are responsible for maintaining the seasons?" When Queen Clarion nodded yes, Elsa added, "Which means that you visit the human world?"

"We refer to it as the Mainland, but yes," Queen Clarion confirmed.

Elsa nodded her understanding, then turned towards Lord Milori and asked, "And I'm guessing that it would be your fairies that would be responsible for winter?"

Lord Milori nodded and asked, "Was there something you were needing, child?"

Elsa nodded as she said, "If you can, I'd like you to send one of your fairies to Arendelle. I would feel so much better about all of this if I could be sure that my sister Anna was okay, and that she knew that I was as well."

Lord Milori nodded and said, "I would be happy to have Sled fulfil your request. He is one of the most talented Animal fairies I have."

"I would be honored to, my Lord," Sled agreed with a bow, "My snowy owl could have me there to check on this Anna and back here in no time. However, I don't know how I am to let her know that Queen Elsa is safe. Since she's human, I'm sure that she'd have the same problems understanding me that Elsa here had at first."

"Ooh, ooh! Take me! Take me!" an exuberant Gliss exclaimed as she bounced up and down, "I could use my frost to communicate with her using pictures!"

"What?" Sled said, sounding dismayed and uneasy at the thought of bringing the hyper frost fairy along.

"It's true," Lord Milori agreed, "Though there are some of my frost fairies that may be more effective at their jobs, Gliss is certainly more artistically inclined, which would make her more effective at this particular task."

When Sled seemed to still hesitate, Rose came over and ran her finger along Sled's jawline as she said, "Aww, let her come along, sugah! I'm sure that she'll be of great help, and you would be able to get back here that much sooner!"

Sled sighed, then he grabbed Rose's hand and kissed its knuckled as he said, "Okay, I'll take Gliss with me."

"Yay!" Gliss squealed as she gave Rose an enthusiastic hug, then she ran over to Sled's snowy owl and climbed on as she called out, "Come on! Let's go, let's go!"

Sled chuckled as he strode over to join her. As they flew off, Tink assured Elsa, "I'm sure that your sister is just fine."

"I pray that you're right, Tinkerbell," Elsa said as she watched them vanish into the distance, "I just hope that those two can convince her that I'm okay. Knowing my sister, she's most likely commandeering a ship and a troop of soldiers to come after me, and the last thing I need is for her to get any more involved."

* * *

Back at Arendelle, Anna was pacing around in her room fuming. If _only_ she could get out of here, then she could have commandeered a ship and some soldiers, then she could have had her sister home by now! However, ever since those ugly, smelly pirates had grabbed her sister, her father had her locked in her room "for her own protection"!

Anna didn't want to be protected, she wanted to be the one doing the protecting! After all, when her sister had run off scared, wasn't she the one who went off to bring her back home? Granted that didn't exactly work out as planned, but when Hans tried to execute Elsa for "killing" her, Anna was the one who had saved her life, and in so doing saved her own. And when that stupid Duke had invaded to once again try and kill her sister, Anna had thought she had proven herself fairly capable in a scrap. She even had an informal invitation to join the Chinese army issued to her by the guardian dragon of the Hero of China for Pete's sakes! But her father had insisted that she trust the men under his command to find and rescue Elsa.

It had been nearly two days since then, however, and there had been no word from the searching ships! It was as if the pirates had simply vanished, and that was making Anna even more stir-crazy! While she might not have had any better clue as to where to start looking than the sailors that were searching, Anna was certain she could have figured it out!

Anna was in a rather irritable mood when she heard a gentle knocking, which prompted her to whirl towards the locked door and snap, "What!?" There was no answer however, and as she heard the knocking again she realized that it was coming from the opposite direction. As she slowly turned in confusion, she saw something that astounded her. A snowy owl was rapping, or rather pecking, at her bedroom window! She'd read about snowy owls, as that was one of the only things she had to do growing up when her parents had begun their practice of isolation them from the world (and her sister began shutting herself in her room), so she knew enough to know that they didn't live in this part of the world. What she found most astonishing, however, was that she swore there were two little people riding on the owl's back! One male & one female, they both appeared to be clothed in outfits made from bluish-green leaves! As she got closer to the window, she was pretty sure that she'd caught the sparkle of transparent wings on their backs!

"Fairies?" Anna asked in wonder as she opened the window to let them in, pulling her cape around her to stave off the cold air coming in, "Real live fairies?"

"Yes, we are!" Gliss started to yammer excitedly, "My name in Gliss, and this is Sled, and we have come…"

Anna thought that the tinkling voice coming from the fairy was rather pretty, but she couldn't understand what it was she was saying, so she started to apologize, "I'm sorry, but I don'…" Then Anna noticed something that made her breath catch in her throat. Over the heads of each of the fairies was a tiny snow cloud! While her exposure to the outside world had this far been limited, Anna know of only _one_ person who could do _that!_ "Elsa!" Anna asked them, "Have you fairies seen Elsa!?"

Gliss nodded yes, then she went back to Anna's window. As Anna watched, the female fairy, who seemed to have hair much like Elsa's, also seemed to have a gift similar to Elsa's as well, as she proceeded to frost one pane of the window. When she was done, the fairy had used the frost to draw a perfect likeness of Elsa!

"That's her!" Anna said excitedly, her heart speeding in her chest, "Where is she? Is she okay?"

The fairy turned to Anna's window to proceed to create another frost drawing on the second pane, this one of a number of fairies releasing Elsa from a cage over a fire just as a mean looking pirate came through the door holding what appeared to be a butterfly net.

"So you guys rescued her from the pirates? Thank you!" said Anna gratefully.

"It wasn't actually _us_ us," explained Gliss, "It was….never mind, your sister will explain it to you later."

Gliss then turned back towards the window and created a third drawing showing Elsa standing on a beach somewhere using her ice powers to send the pirate ship away.

"Yeah, that's Elsa for you, all right!" Anna said proudly, "So then everything's okay? Elsa's coming home?" When she saw the two fairies looking at each other in concern, Anna asked, "What is it? What's wrong?"

When Gliss turned back towards the window, Sled protested, "Gliss! You're not going to tell her!?"

"She deserves to know," Gliss responded as she began her fourth drawing, one of the pirated ship headed back towards the island.

"The pirates are coming back?" Anna asked, "What are you guys going to do?"

Gliss then made a fifth picture showing two groups charging towards one another, Elsa and the fairies on one side, the pirate crew on another.

"You're going to fight," Anna said, "Please, take me with you!"

"Come on, Gliss," Sled said while mounting the owl, "It's time to go."

Gliss looked sadly at Anna, but she flew over and got back on the owl. Anna, however, was not deterred as she went to move between the fairies and the window as she said, "Please!? I'd been so worried about what had happened to Elsa, and now that I know what she's been through, what she's facing, I can't just sit around and do nothing, hope that it'll turn out all right! I want to help!"

"My Lady?" a guard's voice is heard coming through the door, "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine! Thank you!" Anna called out loudly, then softer she said determinedly to the fairies with her fists planted on her hips and a crooked smile on her face, "Look, I'm going to follow you guys anyways, so you might as long take me with you!"

"Aww, let's just take her! It'll be fun!" Gliss said with a smile on her voice.

"Are you nuts!?" Sled said in disbelief, "That's not what we were told to do! Can you imagine how mad Elsa is going to be!?"

"Can you imagine how much madder she'd be if she tried following us on her own and wound up drowning?" Gliss countered in a sly tone.

Sled sighed in exasperation as he said, "I can't believe I'm doing this! Rose is never going to let me hear the end of it!" The he flew off the owl and began to sprinkle his pixie dust all over her.

At first Anna didn't know what the male fairy, who seemed to be in an irritable mood, was doing by covering her in this dust, but then she gasped as her ponytails started to defy gravity and float up on their own! The female fairy then flew up towards her face and pushed up the corners of her mouth. Intuition kicking in, Anna closed her eyes and thought of the happiest memory she knew; that of her and Elsa playing together in the snow when they were kids. She knew that the memory had been altered, that they had actually played together in the castle by using Elsa's powers, but apparently it was good enough as Anna soon found herself floating in mid air! She could not believe it, she was flying! And then she was crashing butt first into the ceiling, but she didn't care as she was having the time of her life! As she taught herself to fly, with increasing success due to the female fairy guiding her here and there, Anna wondered if this was how Elsa had felt back when she was younger and not so touchy about her powers, how she felt now since she'd learned to accept them again. Anna remembered that Julian had told her that she might have had a power that hadn't shown itself, one that might have been taken away as an indirect result of her accident, and that she might still develop one later in life. While Anna knew that this flying was not of her own power, she still felt in this moment that she could really be of help to Elsa and that everything would be all right!

Apparently the sounds of Anna bouncing off the walls was enough to convince the guards that she was not "fine", as they burst into the room together with Anna's parents and gaped up at the sight of her flying around the room.

"Anna? What on Earth…?" Anna's mother gasped.

"Hi mom! Hi dad! The fairies know where the pirates took Elsa and I'm going to follow them and bring her home!" Anna said as they once again mounted the snowy owl, then as they flew through the open window Anna followed them and said, "See ya!"

"Anna, wait!" Anna's father called out to her, unable to catch her in time. Then he turned to his guards and said, "Follow her!"

"Yes, my Lord!" the guard said as he rushed off. However, as Anna's father turned back to look out the window it was apparent on his face that he realized he'd given an order that they would not be able to follow. They would not be able to keep pace with her as fast as she was flying, however she was managing to do so. He could only pray that both his daughters would be all right.

* * *

As Anna neared the edge of town, she saw Sven pulling Kristoff and Olaf in the new sled Elsa had helped her get for him. Apparently they were coming to see how she'd been doing since the pirate's raid. When Anna hovered and waved at him, Kristoff pulled hard on the reigns and goggled at her as he stammered, "Anna!? How….what…?"

"The fairies are taking me to where the pirates took Elsa!" Anna explained.

"By yourself? Are you serious!?" Kristoff exclaimed as Olaf looked up at her in delight.

Anna seemed to mull it over in her head then she turned to where the fairies' owl was flapping hard to hover in one place and asked, "Hey guys! Do you think you could…?"

"Hey Anna! How are you flying? I wanna fly too!" Olaf called up at her.

"Ooh, a talking snowman! Let's take them with us!" Gliss said to Sled.

"What!?" Sled said in disbelief, but Gliss didn't wait for his response. Instead, she flew over and dumped the entire contents of her pixie dust pouch all over them, reindeer, sled and all. As Olaf was always happy, he had no problem in achieving flight. Unfortunately, each one of his sections seemed to have a mind of its own and wanted to take off on a different direction, so Anna had to join Kristoff in the sled to keep Olaf from going to pieces. As for Sven, there was two things he did really well: pull a sled and keep an happy demeanor. It didn't even seem to matter to him that the sled was no longer on the ground as he began to pull it through the air after the fairies while Kristoff tried to hold Olaf in his lap.

"I am so getting grounded for this!" Sled moaned as Kristoff reached up again to catch Olaf's disembodies head, who was still laughing in delight, "I mean, who had ever heard of a flying reindeer?"

* * *

Meanwhile, in a nearby house, a little girl around seven years old is awoken by the sounds of tinkling bells. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she looks out her window in time to see the silhouette of a reindeer pulling a sled across the moon, with what appears to be a rather rotund gentlemen at the reigns, his hand by what appeared to be a funny shaped hat as joyful laughter rings through the air.

Her face lighting up, she ran out of the room calling out, "Mommy! Mommy! I just saw Saint Nick!"

"Oh honey, it's not even Christmas Eve yet!" a tired sounding young woman's voice can be heard in response, "Please, go back to sleep!"

* * *

As a new morning dawned in Neverland, Elsa began to feel a sense of accomplishment. After she'd assured them that the traps she had in mind for the pirates were all non-lethal, they had made great progress in getting them set up. While she'd been very fascinated by all of the fairies' talents, Elsa had been most impressed by Tinkerbell and her fellow tinker fairies. While their talent did not seem quite as magical as the talents, Elsa found their ability to make various tools and machines out of little more than pieces of bark, vines, and various bits of scrap (or Lost Things, as Tinkerbell called them) nothing less than amazing.

As Elsa prepared to follow Rose to check on how far along her fellow Garden Fairies were on the Poison Ivy barriers and the snare traps, she saw something in the distant sky that made her pause. At first she thought it was some sort of large bird. Then, as it got closer, Elsa thought that her lack of sleep was making her see things, because she was a bit to old to believe in Saint Nick. Then, when it was bright enough for Elsa to recognize a familiar reindeer wearing the special harness she herself had commissioned, as well as those riding in the sleigh he was pulling, Elsa's jaw dropped as her heart was torn between a range of emotions; relief, disbelief, fear, anger.

"She _didn't!_" Elsa said in angry disbelief the same time as she heard Rose say, "He _didn't!_" in the same tone. As she turned towards Rose, whom she saw was hearing the same look of outraged disbelief she herself had, they said together, "They did!" Then they turned and stalked towards the new arrivals.

* * *

As Kristoff brought Sven in for a landing, Anna could not believe how beautiful this island was! She could have sworn that she'd seen actual mermaids swimming in the lagoon that they'd flown over, but she had no way of confirming this as she couldn't have understood their guides even if she'd asked them. When the sled came to a stop, Anna saw that they had gathered a rather sizable crowd as fairies wearing all sorts of different outfits came to see. Of course Sven was especially excited to see all the new faces, and he was especially friendly to one fairy wearing an orange and amber outfit, giving her a slobbery kiss that left her drenched.

As Anna looked around her, she finally spotted emerging from the tree line the face she most wanted to see. As she started to wave at her, however, her hand froze in mid air and her greeting lodged in her throat as she saw that Elsa didn't seem happy to see her. As a matter of fact, both Elsa and the fairy flying next to her looked rather angry!

"Uh-oh!" muttered Kristoff nervously, and Anna could swear that he was voicing her thoughts, "Duck and cover!"

"Anna, what are you doing here?" Elsa asked in an anger born of concern as the female fairy with her began yelling in her tinkling voice at the male fairy who brought Anna here, "Didn't you get my message that I was okay? Why would you put yourself in danger like this?"

Anna, somewhat put off by her sister's attitude, frowned slightly at Elsa as she said, "You do realize that what you just said was contradictory, don't you?"

"What?" Elsa asked, thrown off by Anna's question.

"If you were okay, then my coming here would not be putting me in danger," Anna explained, "If my coming to you would put me in danger, then you would not be okay. It's contradictory."

Elsa, refusing to let Anna evade the question like this, asked again, "Why are you here?"

"I'm here because my only sister is getting ready to fight with a bunch of fairies against the pirates who had kidnapped her!" Anna answered, "I'm here because I wanted to help!"

"The best way you could have helped was by staying at home where it was safe!" Elsa countered.

"Do you honestly think that I could have done that?" Anna asked her, "Just waited patiently back at Arendelle, not knowing if you would be returning from who-knows-where alive, if at all? If I'd played it safe last summer, then you would not be here now to yell at me!"

"I know that!" Elsa yelled back at her, tears forming at the corners of her eyes, "But do you know how much it killed me then, to see you standing there as a lifeless ice statue? Do you think that I could bear to go through that again?"

"I feel exactly the same way about you!" Anna reciprocated as she stepped out of the sled, "I've already attended one funeral for people I cared about! I'm not ready to attend another one for you!"

"You guys shouldn't fight," interjected Olaf as he clambered out of Kristoff's lap, "It sounds like you guys both care about each other enough to want to protect the other. You should just accept that your sister feels the same way. And Rose, it sounds like Sled had only brought Anna along because he was concerned about what would happen if she followed him on her own, and he'd brought us because he knew we'd protect her."

"Wait, Olaf? You can understand them too?" Elsa asked him in confusion.

"Uh, yeah? I guess so," Olaf answered, apparently unable to understand why he wouldn't.

" 'Too'? As in you can understand what the fairies are saying?" Anna asked her sister.

"Yeah," Elsa confirmed, "It's sort of a long story, but something happened to me shortly after my rescue, and now I can understand them. Olaf's right, though, we're not accomplishing anything by fighting now, and it's not exactly any safer standing around here, so come with me and I'll introduce you to the others."

Anna sighed happily as it seemed that Elsa's anger was spent, and she started to walk towards her.

"Oh! But don't step…!" Elsa started to call out in warning, but it was too late. As soon as Anna had stepped forward onto a seemingly level patch of sand, she heard a crack like thin ice breaking and her foot fell through into nothingness, momentum carrying the rest of her forward. As Anna yelped in surprise, her body twisted around instinctively and she landed hard on her bottom in what appeared to be an ice-coated pit.

"…there," Elsa finished sheepishly as she looked down to see her, "Sorry, should have warned you about the pitfall traps we have lining the area around here. Are you okay?"

Anna stood and rubbed her bottom as she answered, "Ow! Yeah, nothing broken except my backside."

Elsa chuckled and reached down as she said, "Here, let me help you out of there."

"That's okay," Anna said, "I think I've got this." Then Anna concentrated and, before Elsa's disbelieving eyes, she flew out of the pit and landed just outside of it.

"How…?" Elsa asked Anna, her eyes wide with surprise, "How did you…?"

"It was the fairies," Anna explained, "They sprinkled some dust on me and now I can fly, so long as I think happy thoughts. "

"Of course, the pixie dust," Elsa said in realization, then more softly, as if to herself, "It all comes back to that, doesn't it?" As Elsa turned and walked towards Sven, she said to Anna, "I know that you wanted to be here, and there's little that we can do about that now, but I don't know what you hope to do. I mean, you didn't even bring any weap…OW!"

That exclamation was accompanied by a metallic thunk as Elsa's right foot struck something buried in the sand. "What in the world?" Elsa asked as she started to unearth what her foot had hit. Then, as she pulled it out, Elsa said wryly, "You have got to be kidding!"

As Elsa held it up, Anna could clearly see what it was: a cast iron frying pan. Anna could even make out a seal imprinted on the bottom that identified it as having been one that was forged and sold by a local blacksmith in Arendelle!

As the fairy Olaf had Identified as Rose said something to Elsa, she replied, "Yes, I remember how you said that things that are lost on the Mainland wind up washing ashore here, but how and when did someone manage to lose a whole frying pan over in Arend….oh, I see now! It must've been during the battle with the Duke! Julian must have missed one."

As Elsa looked at the frying pan now as if it were made of something more precious than iron, Anna held her hand as she said, "You see? This was meant to be!"

Elsa looked at Anna askance as she asked, "There's no talking you out of this, is there?"

"Nope!" Anna confirmed with a smirk, "You're fighting, then so am I!"

Elsa sighed then handed the pan to Anna as she said, "Here, keep hold of this. There's no telling _what_ happens to things that are lost _here!_" When Anna grabbed it and tied it to a rope she slung around her shoulders, Elsa led Anna towards the tree line, while a couple of fairies showed Kristoff and Olaf the way and still others unharnessed Sven, as Elsa said to them, "Now come with me. I'd like to show you what other surprises we have for the pirates when they get around to showing their faces here again."

* * *

James could not believe the indignity of it all! He had went from being a Boatswain to being Captain to a mere Cabin Boy! To add insult to injury, he and Smee were now both dangling from rope harnesses like worms on fishing lines as they worked to remove the last of that witch's ice from the ship's aft. This part was the trickiest, as one wrong swing of the hammer or poorly placed chisel would leave them with an unusable rudder, and the Captain had made it no secret that if he so much as chipped it then he'd have the men cut his line and leave him to drown.

Still James felt a certain satisfaction as, with one last swing, the rudder was finally freed of the ice and the men pulled him back aboard. Black Adder took one look as James was hauled over the railing, then he turned back towards the others and said, "Now, men, the time come! When we set out on this here venture, I had promised you we'd become the most powerful crew ever to have sailed the seven seas! Did you think that I'd let some witch queen and a handful of pixie pests make fools of the crew of the Jolly Roger?"

"No!" the crew cried out in unison.

"Did you think that I'd let a bit of ice make me give up, when the ultimate treasure is so close to being within our grasp?" the Captain asked them.

"No!" the crew cried out again.

"Are you ready, men, to take back that which rightfully belongs to you?" the Captain asked them.

"Yes!" the crew said.

"Then turn about and set the sails!" the Captain ordered, "To Neverland and infamy!"

As James watched the men cheer coarsely as they followed the Captain's orders, James allowed himself a small smile. Suddenly it didn't matter as much to him about losing his position. He still had his life, and with that a chance to regain his title as well, not to mention a little revenge along the way. _We'll meet again soon, fairy,_ James thought to himself, _and when we do I'll take great pleasure in making you watch as I pluck the wings from your friends backs one by one! _


	4. 4) Invasion

**Invasion**

Anna just couldn't believe how amazing this place was! It was as if the flight in was but a mere preview to the wonder that was Pixie Hollow! Since she had gotten reacquainted with the fact that Elsa has powers, Anna had known that it was possible to have an area of winter in the middle of seasons like summer and autumn, but this was beyond her wildest imaginings! Four seasons, coexisting side by side, each with its own area! To imagine that they stayed like that all year long simply blew Anna's mind. Well, to be honest, Anna had a good basis for the Winter Woods: Arendelle almost ended up like that, only not nearly as nice.

As awe inspiring as this place was, however, the fairies that inhabited it were even more so! She recalled from Julian's tale that there were many "gifted" individuals in the world, and while she had seen a good number of them in his little show-and-tell, this was her first time experiencing that fact firsthand! It seemed that every fairy here had a special talent! She saw fairies that could coax flowers to emerge from the ground and could get trees to grow even faster than Anna could believe! She saw fairies that could redirect beams of light emerging through the canopy of trees and could make the most beautiful rainbows! She saw fairies that could control the water and fairies that flew so fast that they created huge gusts of wind in their wake! Even the tinker fairies, whose talents seemed the least magical, created machines that were so amazing that Anna could have spent hours asking them how each one of them worked!

Of course, Anna was especially in awe of her sister Elsa! According to the fairies (or rather, to Olaf, who'd taken it upon himself to be their translator) they had only been working on the traps and other special preparations for the pirates' inevitable return since yesterday. They had accomplished so much that Anna would have found that claim nearly impossible to believe had she not noticed the dark circles under Elsa's eyes. In this moment it became so apparent that Elsa was a natural born leader that Anna could hardly believe that she'd wanted to turn down their father's offer to hand down his crown immediately! Then again, maybe it was that very reluctance to take the throne that made her such a good leader. Anna was sure that she'd read somewhere that the best leaders were those who "do not seek the crown, but rather only take it because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well."

As the tour of the preparations reached the end, Anna found herself standing before the largest tree she's ever seen, both in height and in its canopy of leaves. "And this is the Pixie Dust Tree," Elsa explained, "The pixie dust it produces is what enables the fairies to fly and to use their talents, as well as awakening the fairies who are born from a baby's first laugh. The blue pixie dust, which is what we're sure the pirates are after, sustains the tree and enables it to produce the pixie dust year after year. Without it….well, I'm sure you can imagine."

"Life in Pixie Hollow will end," Anna guessed.

"Pretty much," Elsa confirmed, then as a pair of fairies exit the tree from a nook at the bottom, one of whom was wearing the most beautiful sparkling dress Anna had ever seen, Elsa introduced them, "Elsa, this is Queen Clarion of Pixie Hollow and Lord Milori of the Winter Woods. My Queen and Lord, this is my sister, Princess Anna of Arendelle."

"Your Majesties," Anna greeted with a curtsey, "I'd like to thank you for rescuing my sister from the pirates."

"Not at all," Olaf translated for Queen Clarion, "Queen Elsa has been most helpful in helping us set up defenses against the pirate invasion. Besides, it was Tinkerbell and her friends, one of whom I see you've already met, who had actually rescued your sister." As Queen Clarion looked up into the sky, Olaf translated for her as she said, "Ah, here come the others now."

As Anna followed her gaze, she saw a small but varied group of fairies flying in from the general direction of the beach, and Olaf began translating for the one in lavender (which Anna guessed was a fast-flyer based on her tour) as she looked snidely upon them and said, "Ah, so _you're_ what all the commotion was about! I hope that you guys appreciate that we took the trouble to hide your sled, so the pirates don't turn it into kindling when they get here! And what's this thing that's repeating everything I'm saying?"

"Hi! I'm Olaf, and I like warm hugs!" Olaf introduced himself, his arms spread wide.

"Uh-huh," the fast-flier said uneasily as she flew slowly backwards away from him, "Have fun with that."

"Vidia!" Olaf translated for the tinker fairy who'd scolded her then flew down to shake his hand as she said, "It's very nice to meet you Olaf!"

Elsa then stepped forward to stand beside Anna as she said to the fairies who arrived, "Everyone, this is my sister Anna, her boyfriend Kristoff, his reindeer friend Sven, and you've already met Olaf, the first friend I'd 'made'. Anna, Kristoff, these are the fairies who'd freed me. The one with the mouth was Vidia. The sparrowman is Terrance. Then we have Fawn, Iridessa and Silvermist. Then finally we have Periwinkle and Tinkerbell, who are sisters like us."

Anna thought that was an understatement. Looking at Tinkerbell and Periwinkle, Anna thought that was what she and Elsa would look like if they were somehow transformed into fairies. Even their choice in colors for their outfits were similar.

"Why are their wings glowing and those of the other fairies are not?" Anna asked her sister.

"It's because they're twin sisters," Elsa explained, "When they get close to one another their wings glow. It those wings happen to touch, then they get really bright and….things happen."

"Yeah, freaky things like mending each other's wings and letting certain humans like you understand us," Olaf translated for Vidia.

_So that's why Elsa can understand them,_ Anna thought to herself, then something else Vidia had said caught her attention. "Wait, 'mend each other's wings'? As in when they're broken?"

"That's right," Elsa confirmed with a troubled expression, "It turns out that when the wings of a warm fairy like Tink or Vidia get too cold, then they become extremely brittle and are easily broken. Winter fairies have the same problem with warm weather. This is irreversible for all except Tink and Perri, and so far they've only confirmed it with each other."

Anna put what Elsa said together with her troubled look and concluded, "That's what the pirates wanted you for!"

Elsa nodded as she said, "They wanted me to clear the way for them to get the fairies' dust, and they told me that they had you captive and would kill you if I didn't agree. That's why I didn't want you here; I didn't want them to have a chance to make good on their threats."

"So I suppose we have to hide the girl now too," Olaf translated Vidia's grump, "Make sure she doesn't go wandering around in front of the pirates and wind up a princess-kabob."

"Now hold on!" Anna said to Vidia, setting her fists on her hips, "I'm pretty mean swinging a skillet, and since I had been sprinkled with pixie dust I can fly fairly fast as well!"

" 'Pretty fast'?" Vidia scoffed, "Yeah, right!"

"You're one of those fast-flying talent fairies?" Anna asked her, "Sorry, but I'm not seeing it! The fastest thing I've seen on you thus far is your mouth!"

Vidia looked up at Anna shrewdly and asked, "You think _you_ can keep up with _me_, human?"

Anna returned the look and countered, "You looking to test me, fairy?"

"All right then, girl!" Vidia said as she cracked her knuckles, "Let's go!" Then Vidia took off and Elsa chased after her, hearing Elsa's chuckle as she left her behind in a cloud of dust.

* * *

As Neverland once more came into view, a sight James thought he could not love or hate more than any other, a thrill of anticipation went through him. When the ship set anchor and the crew filed onto the lifeboats, James hurried forward to join them, but the Captain held him back. "No, James," the Captain said to him, "You and Smee will remain here and watch the ship, make sure that nothing happens to it while we're away."

"But Captain!" James protested, "I had wanted to…"

"You will stay here!" Black Adder interrupted, "You will guard this ship with your lives! Am! I! Understood!?"

James gulped and replied, "Y-y-yes Captain sir!"

"I don't like to repeat myself, so this will be the only time!" the captain growled, "The next time I have to repeat an order, I'll make my point with my cutlass instead!" When James nodded his understanding, the Captain went to join his men and bellowed "Cast off!"

As the boats were lowered into the water, James felt a moment of disappointment that he would not be able to exact his own revenge on the fairies, but then he thought of how angry the Captain had been and he brightened again. The last time he'd been that angry, the Captain had an entire village slaughtered just because some man had made the mistake of calling him "Blackbeard". So maybe he wouldn't personally wouldn't be able to get his own revenge, but thinking of what was heading towards the fairies now gave him goosebumps of pleasure all over again.

* * *

Okay, Anna knew she had talked big when she said those things to Vidia, but come on! That purple fairy was getting on her nerves! She was justified! Granted that she couldn't exactly trust that Olaf's translations were 100% accurate, but since Elsa didn't do or say anything to correct him Anna figured his portrayal of Vidia's attitude problem was pretty spot on. Besides, Vidia's body language said even more than her words did, so Anna figured it was time to show this fairy what she was capable of.

Now she was starting to regret that decision, finding this to be a humbling and literally painful experience. She definitely had the speed, as she had proved the few time she had surprised Vidia by blowing past her. Unfortunately, Anna didn't yet have the control, as she also proved seconds later when she wound up crashing into some tree, something that Vidia apparently found to be hilarious. At least Anna _thought_ Vidia was laughing, as all the sounds that the fairy made came out sounding like tinkling bells to her, but her face certainly looked like she was laughing. If she was laughing, however, then apparently it wasn't something she did often, for whenever another fairy was nearby they stared at her as if she'd grown a second head.

Each time, however, just made Anna more determined to prove she had it in her. After a while Anna stopped trying to pass her and instead focused on keeping pace, watching how Vidia moved and flexed her body and attempted to emulate her. By doing so, Anna was able to avoid running into things less and less.

When Vidia was apparently satisfied with the progress Anna was making, Vidia decided to stop holding back and kicked her speed into overdrive, so Anna did the same. She found it difficult to make such maneuvers at those speeds, but the fast-flyer was unable to lose her.

Finally, when they found themselves at the treeline that marked the start of the beach area, Vidia apparently decided to call it quits. Leaning against a tree to catch her breath, Vidia faced her to say something to her. As usual, Anna wasn't able to understand her without a translator present, but from the impressed expression Vidia wore Anna would guess that she was complimenting her. Anna was about to return with a compliment of her own, to tell her that she was indeed fast, when she saw something past her that made her go wide-eyed. Ducking down into the shrubbery, she reached up and gently grabbed Vidia to pull her down with her.

It seemed that Vidia didn't like being grabbed that way and had no problems voicing her displeasure, but when Anna put her finger to her own lips Vidia got the message and held her tongue. The Anna let Vidia go and they both peered through the leaves together.

In the middle of the lagoon was the ship that Anna had recognized as the one that sailed away quickly from Arendelle the night Elsa had been abducted, and three smaller rowboats were making their way from said ship towards the shore. Looking at Vidia, Anna whispered to her, "They're here! We have to go back and tell the others!" Vidia nodded her agreement and together they raced back the way towards the Pixie Dust Tree.

It was difficult to tell, with the sound of the wind so loud in her ears, but Anna though she heard Vidia say something brief each time they passed some group of fairies, possibly telling them to get ready. When they got back to the tree, it looked like Elsa was about to ask how their race went or something pleasant like that, but those words died on her lips when she saw the expression on Anna's face one moment before she panted, "The pirates….they're here…!"

Elsa nodded in grim understanding as she called out, "All right, everyone! To your positions! It's time to defend your home!" When the various groups of fairies raced off, Elsa turned towards Queen Clarion and Lord Milori and said, "Well, my Queen and Lord, shall we go greet our guests?" When they nodded their understanding and agreement, Elsa looked up and to her left, Elsa asked, "How about you? Are you ready?" to which a deep grunt was the response. When Anna saw who Elsa was talking to now, her grin grew impossibly wide.

* * *

When Black Adder and his men landed on the beach he took a moment to visually scan the coast and the wooded area beyond. He could have sworn that he'd seen movement in the trees when they were only half way here, but there was no sign of anyone there now, that there was an ambush waiting for them. Either it had only been the wind, the rippling of the heat in the air, or (most likely) a scout now heading to warn the rest.

"Look, Captain! Tracks!" one of his men said as he pointed towards the sand. Indeed, he did see that there were a number of different sets of tracks in the sand. One was somewhat dainty and not to heavily set, likely female (the Queen, perhaps?) while the other was much larger and more heavy set, obviously male. A third was from some four-legged animal. He would have guessed from the weight that it was a horse, but the fact that these tracks were made by cloven hooves ruled that possibility out. The fourth was, by far, the most curious, as he could not identify what had made them at all! Whatever it was wasn't that big, for it had practically no leg span, nor that heavy, for they weren't deep. There was no toes, no paw pads, no indications of any kind of hooves or anything! In fact, the biggest distinguishing characteristic of these tracks was their lack of distinguishing characteristics; just perfectly round indentations in the snow.

Then there was the track of some sort of vehicle. Due to how even they were throughout, Adder would have guessed that it was some sort of sled, but what a sled would be doing here in this climate was beyond even him. Looking at the female's tracks again, he corrected his estimate that they were the Queen's, as he recalled that they were somewhat larger than these. Looking around, he saw yet another set of tracks, these ones much more matching the size of the Queen's feet. Based on his cursory observation, he would have to conclude that the Queen met these three strangers, who arrived in some sort of vehicle pulled by an animal, and led them back into the woods.

The one mystery that he had yet to solve, however, was what happened to the vehicle. While the tracks of the people and animal continue on, the tracks of the vehicle simply stop, and there's no sign that it was simply pushed back into the water, and as the people's tracks remain the same depth it is apparent that they didn't simply pick it up and carry it with them. Something funny was going on!

"Keep a sharp eye!" The Captain said softly to his men, and the order was passed down through the rest. As they started to step forward out of the surf Adder heard a surprised yell off to his left and looked over in time to see the man in question fall into a hole in the ground that he was sure wasn't there before. When some of the men scrambled over to see what happened and possibly to help their comrade a couple more fell victim to additional disguised pits.

Since he heard moaning and complaining from inside, as well as the sounds of the men scrabbling for purchase, Adder figured that they weren't seriously injured or killed so he carefully leaned to look inside and saw what the problem was. The pits, which had been dug in the sand, were also coated in a thick layer of ice, making them too slick to escape on their own. So apparently the witch, and possibly her mysterious allies, had helped the fairies to set traps for them, but the question was whether she was still here or if she'd fled after doing what she did for them.

When some of the men looked as though they still wanted to help their comrades out Adder told them no and signaled them to keep moving. Since neither the witch or the fairies had done anything more extreme like lining the pits with spikes, he doubted that they would come back later and finish them off while they were helpless.

Despite the added caution, four more fell victim to the pitfalls, two of whom fell into one when one of the men tried to stop another from falling in and wound up being pulled in himself. Since Adder figured that his foes would not be able to walk on their own traps he guessed that the tracks would show the safest route through and his men followed his lead; however, one man made the mistake of following the tracks of the smaller female and ended up in yet another pit.

As they were nearing the end of the beach area, Adder caught movement in the treeline and looked up in time to see Queen Elsa emerge from it, once again dressed in a gown similar to the one in which they captured her in and looking for all the world as though she wasn't too bothered by the fact they were only a couple yards apart. Behind her emerged other figures, and Adder could now put faces to most of the other tracks. In addition to the four fairies with them, Adder saw a strapping, yet clean shaven young man who had what appeared to be a climbing pick tucked into his belt; a young woman (likely the Queen's sister due to her similar appearance), who for some reason had a frying pan tied to a rope that was slung around over her shoulder; and a waist-high living snowman.

His men wanted to charge them right away, but Adder held up his had to tell them to wait; he wanted to see what game the Queen was playing. "Hello once again, your Highness," Adder greeted her with a bow, "and I assume that this charming young lass is your younger sister? A pleasure to meet you."

"Believe me," the young lady said curtly as she crossed her arms in front of her chest, "the pleasure's all yours!"

"Please forgive my sister's brusque greeting, Captain," Queen Elsa said in an apologetic and formal tone, "My sister had to spend most of her childhood practically alone, with only my parents and what few servants they'd kept around for company, keeping entertained by talking to the pictures on the walls. As such, she has a tendency to speak her mind whenever she's around others."

"Yes, I can see how that would make one to be rather lacking in social graces," Adder conceded, "However, I am surprised to see you still here. Considering how abruptly you left my company last time, I would have assumed that you would have went back home first chance you had."

"Well, let's face it, Captain, you weren't exactly an ideal host, as I only had a single glass of water from you during my time aboard, and was only introduced to a single member of your crew, and the lowest ranking member at that! I didn't even get to meet the Boatswain James you had mentioned."

The fairy in green then said something to the Queen, who said in response, "Oh, so then that young man with the net was James? I see." The Queen then said to the Captain while visually scanning his crew, "I don't see him here now, though. I do hope he's all right, that was a pretty nasty spill after all."

Adder's left eye twitched at the mention of James even as he replied cordially, "James is fine. He and Smee are watching over the ship while we are away."

"I see," Elsa said, sounding as if she were genuinely concerned about his welfare, "That's good to hear. As I was saying, your skills as a host were lacking, but the Fairies here were excellent hosts, they even gave me a proper meal and everything; vegetarian, of course, as they don't eat meat here. I figured that you'd be back, though, so I thought I'd stick around to show you how to host a guest properly."

"Well, you certainly gave us an interesting reception," Adder said while gesturing at the pits on the beach.

"The pits?" the Queen asked, then she added while waving with a dismissive wave, "I knew those wouldn't stop someone like you, Captain. No, I knew that you were coming back for the dust and would likely be in a hurry to get it; the pits were only intended to get you to slow down till I could get here personally, to give us a chance to….parlay."

Adder felt a moment of irritation as the queen used the same words he'd greeted her with upon awakening, but he suppressed it as he said, "I see. I take it then that you've had a chance to consider my offer?"

"I have," the Queen confirmed, "After having listened to both sides of the argument, I have decided to decline on your offer. I'm sure that you could do a great deal of things with that dust, but it's simply a fact that the fairies need it more. Their lives, and those of future fairies, depend on it, and the world depends on them."

"So that then be your decision?" Adder asked her, his body tightening in preparation.

"It is," confirmed the Queen, "but I'd told you earlier the proper way to host a guest, and a big part of that is proper introductions. Of course you already know me, Queen Elsa of Arendelle. The fairies here are Queen Clarion of Pixie Hollow and Lord Milori of the Winter Woods. Then we have Tinkerbell, who released me from your custody, and her twin sister Periwinkle. You've already guessed that this is my sister, Princess Anna, and here is her boyfriend Kristoff. Then we have here my little friend Olaf, and his little brother Mar…"

The Queen trailed off as she noticed that the last spot she was introducing someone from was empty. She then began to look around and call out, "Marshmallow? Where'd you go?" She then spotted something amongst the trees and said, "Ah, there you are! Don't be shy, little guy! Come on out and say hello!"

Her request was greeted by the creaking of trees and a loud thumping, like gigantic footsteps. Then, out of the treeline, stepped the most nightmarish figure Adder had ever laid eyes on! With a body made of hard packed snow, hands and fingers made of sharpened icicles and fangs made of the same, this 20 foot monstrosity was like a personification of the harshness of winter given hideous life. When it roared ferociously, the reaction his men showed would be expected of any man other than those who composed his sea-hardened crew: they screamed and scattered in all directions, running for their lives.

"And they would be…?" The Queen asked sweetly, smiling as if nothing was amiss.

A couple of his men attempted to head back for the rowboats, apparently forgetting about the pits hidden there until they wound up falling into them. The rest split up and fled in either direction, fleeing into the cover of the trees.

"Where are you going!? It only be a walking snowdrift, you yellow-bellied sea slugs!" When his words alone failed to get his men to return Adder glowered one last time at the Queen, who still had that sickeningly sweet smile on her face, before he ran one of the directions his men fled in, hollering after them, "Get back here you pack of cravenly dogs!"

* * *

As Queen Elsa saw that Marshmallow looked as though he wanted to chase after the Captain she reached out to stop him, patting his hand comfortingly as she said, "No, it's okay big guy! You did a good job in getting those pirates to scatter like that, but now it's the fairies' turn to have some fun. Now go back and protect that big tree, make sure none of those mean nasty pirates get close!"

Marshmallow smiled at the praise and nodded, turning to lumber back in the direction of the Pixie Dust Tree. Elsa then turned back towards Queen Clarion and Lord Milori and said, "You guys should go back with him. I'd wanted you here in order to show the pirates a sense of unity, but now that they scattered I think it'd be safer…"

"I appreciate what you're saying, your Highness," Queen Clarion kindly interrupted, "but my place is with my people."

"As is mine," agreed Lord Milori as he mounted his snowy owl and helped Queen Clarion on behind him, "I may not have had the wings to fly with my people for a long time, but I will stand with them on this day."

"Okay, I understand. Just stay safe," Elsa said.

"You too," Queen Clarion said in response just before the snowy owl took off with them onboard.

Elsa then turned to Anna and said, "Anna…"

"Don't worry about me," Anna said with a smile as she took the frying pan in hand and started thumping it in her other palm, "The pirates would need more than wings on their backs to even come close to catching me!" Then she flew off like a rocket into the trees even as Kristoff took his climbing pick into hand and chased after her saying, "Anna, wait for me!"

Elsa chuckled as she turned towards the remaining two fairies and said, "Okay, Tink, I guess that just leaves you, Perri and…" Elsa trailed off as she looked around in confusion and asked, "…where did Olaf go?"

* * *

In another part of the forest, some of the pirates are leaning against the trees catching their breath. Realizing that the giant snow monster hadn't followed them, they appear to have gotten some of their courage back as they draw their cutlasses and begin to search the area. One pirate steps on a patch of leaves and suddenly finds his foot yanked out from under him as the hidden share yanks him up into the air and dangles him upside-down in the air. While the others react to this latest surprise, three others suffer the same fate while garden fairies come out from hiding and cause creeper vines to wrap themselves around the others, binding them tightly from head to toe before the vines sprouted several flowers.

"Ah, good work girls!" Rose said as she admired her fellow fairies' handiwork, "You know, ah was thinking that nothing could make these boys look or smell better, but this 'ere isn't half ba…"

The other fairies gasp in fear as a shadow falls over Rose. Spinning around, Rose's eyes widen in terror as she sees one pirate that had gotten missed, possibly had lagged behind the others, who had his foot raised and ready to stomp as he said with a sneer, "You flying pest, I've got you no-OOWWW!"

When Rose saw what made the pirate exclaim in pain, she thought she was going to faint. Tick-Tock, the baby crocodile who had adopted her earlier this year when she'd been changed temporarily into an animal fairy, currently had his powerful jaws clamped onto the pirate's ankle, bravely defending his "mama". The pirate forgot about trying to squash the fairy and instead hopped backwards on his other foot, trying to shake off the determined reptile. Then one hop landed the pirate onto another hidden snare, and the sudden upward jerking motion caused Tick-Tock to be flung off the pirate's leg and on his back into a pile of leaves.

"Tick-Tock!" Rose exclaimed in concern as she flew over to him and asked, "Are you okay!?"

Tick-Tock wriggled himself around until he got back onto his feet, then he nuzzled Rose in affection. "Dats a good boy!" Rose said as she rubbed his head, "You done good, sugah, but we ain't done yet!" Then she and the other garden fairies flew off into the forest, Tick-Tock quickly following behind.

* * *

Elsewhere, another group of pirates is picking their way through the woods when they encounter an obstacle; the animal fairy Fawn sitting on the head of the reindeer Sven, both looking rather angry with the latter visibly snorting his displeasure. The pirates laugh at the sight, but if they thought Fawn and Sven were a joke then they obviously never had to deal with a seriously cheesed off animal fairy astride an equally ticked off 350 pound reindeer.

Fawn raised her arm and cried out, "Charge!" and Sven, lowering his horns, did precisely that as the underbrush behind him exploded with a stampede of all manner of wildlife: hedgehogs, porcupines, skunks and wolverines all swarmed towards the pirates even as birds and insects of every size flew at them.

Several minutes of screaming, yelping and moaning later, the pirates fled back the way they came as Fawn screamed after them, "And don't come back, or next time I'll be _really_ angry!"

* * *

Elsewhere, a different group of the pirates are hacking their way in deeper when they spot Zarina standing on a branch before them, her cutlass (the only thing she'd kept from her time amongst them) drawn and ready.

"Hey, look boys!" one of the pirates mocked, "It be the 'Captain'!"

As the other pirates roar with laughter, Zarina narrows her eyes and reverses her grip on the sword, then plunges the tip deep into the branch she's on and uses it to brace herself.

"What on Earth is she doing?" a different pirate asks in confusion.

The reasons behind Zarina's actions soon becomes apparent as Vidia and her fellow fast-flying fairies blow past both her and the pirates, generating gale force winds in their wake.

"Wind?" the first pirate hollers over the wind's roar, "Is that the best you fairies got?"

As he looks at her, Vidia hasn't lost her smile, then he notices she's not looking at him but rather past him. Hearing a strange flapping sound, the pirate turns and looks back the way they came to see a large net being carried on the wind.

"Oh," the pirate says in a small voice moments before the net wraps around the lot of them and carries them backwards, bouncing and rolling until they come to rest on the cradle of a large catapult built by the tinker fairies. Then Zarina withdraws her cutlass from the branch and flies over to them and says, "Give my regards to James!" just before she uses the blade to sever the vine and sends the pirates flying back towards the beach.

Fairy Mary, looking through a spyglass Tink had made for her, commentates, "And we have an excellent loft, it is looking good, they've landed on the beach aaannnd….YES! That is, as the humans would say, a hole-in-one! You have a real skill at this, Zarina! When this is all over, you and I should get together and play a round, only we'll use nuts this time."

"But Fairy Mary, I thought that pirates _were_ nuts!" Zarina quips, and everyone present busts up laughing.

* * *

Elsewhere, some pirates are cautiously searching through the jungle they're in. As one of them hears a whooshing sound behind him he turns and sneers (likely expecting a fairy ambush) only for his eyes to go wide just as he receives a face full of frying pan.

Swooping through the pirates' ranks like an avenging angel, Anna swings the frying pan back and forth, dropping a pirate with each swing. One pirate who had the presence of mind to take a swing at the princess learned very quickly that the thin blade of his cutlass was no match for her thick cast iron skillet, particularly when it's being swung by someone flying at such high speeds!

As the pirate stared in shock at the stump of his now broken sword, he saw Kristoff just beyond it, cracking his knuckles as he said, "Hi!" shortly before he decked him.

The pirates, excited to see among them an earthbound opponent who's a bit more their speed, rush towards him expecting an easy victory. Kristoff, however, had grown up learning how to perform the physically demanding job of an ice harvester, not to mention frequently wrestling with his best friend Sven, who grew heavier and stronger with every year, and so tore through the pirates as if they were thin sheets of frost!

"Woo-hoo!" Anna crowed as she tore through another line of pirates, "This is fun!"

"Really!?" Kristoff asked in disbelief as he blocked the swipe of one of the pirates' cutlasses before countering with a haymaker, "You think_ this_ is _fun_!?"

"Sure!" Anna answered, "Don't you?"

"Not really," Kristoff answered honestly as he kicked yet another pirate away from him, "Being this close to ugly, smelly pirates isn't exactly my idea of a good time. Then again, I'm not the one flying around like a bat out of Hell."

"You know you could probably join me up here if you asked the fairies to give you a stronger dose of dust," Anna suggested as she took out a pirate that was coming up on Kristoff from behind.

"No thanks!" Kristoff responded with a smile, taking a moment to deliver a savage headbutt to one of the pirates, "I prefer to keep by feet on terra-firma."

"But Kristoff, don't you spend most of your time on aqua-firma?" Anna asked with a smirk as she took out a few more pirates.

"Very funny!" Kristoff replied as he hefted one of the pirates over his head and hurled him at his fleeing comrades.

* * *

Meanwhile, Elsa was busy holding the line, together with Queen Clarion, Lord Milori, Tink, Periwinkle and Slush the glacier fairy. Slush had formed a huge block of ice that he was now knocking huge chunks off of and hurling at the pirates, while Lord Milori opted for a more direct approach. Handing the reins of his snowy owl to Queen Clarion, Lord Milori leapt from his perch to land on a pirate's outstretched arm, frosting it as he raced along. When another pirate tried to grab him during his run, Lord Milori simply vaulted over his hand, frosting it as well while he continued on without missing a beat. As he reached the pirate's shoulder, Milori reached up to layer on some painful frost to the side of the side of the jaw facing him before leaping off his back to land back on the snowy owl who'd shown up to catch him.

As for Tink and Periwinkle, they were working together as Terri fed her frost into a machine Tink was manning. Essentially a modified version of her original snowmaker, this machine instead took the frost Perri fed into it and compressed it into hardened hailstones that were fired out at high speeds. Even though the pirates have likely had to deal with hailstorms before, it's becoming apparent that they had not before had to weather one that had unerringly aimed hailstones directly at them at hurricane speeds!

As brutal as the punishment the pirates were taking from the fairies was, however, they'd likely consider themselves the lucky ones compared to their comrades who were facing Elsa. They had likely felt, at first, that since they had managed to capture her before, that she would be an easy opponent. Several brutal moments later, they learned to their sorrow that they had only gotten lucky that night by catching her unawares.

Initially, Elsa had considered going with the giant ice suit that she'd used during the battle to defend Arendelle. However, she decided that would be too slow and clunky, and that it would be too hard to maneuver in this wooded area. Instead, she decided to go with a more simplified approach to her armor: guards for her legs and forearms, armor for her torso with a high collared neck, and a pair of baton-like icicles (which she used to great effect). It was a design that was as elegant as it was effective for protection.

Interestingly enough, Elsa's armor itself took almost no hits from the pirates' blades, as Elsa was quickly proving herself rather skilled at using her ice batons for both defense and offense! In fact, the only time Elsa found herself in danger of injury was when she spotted something falling from the sky and barely managed to duck her head out of the way before a cast iron skillet would have collided with it (the pirate behind her wasn't as fortunate)! Glaring in the direction it had come from, she saw Anna smiling sheepishly back at her as she apologized, "Sorry! I'd been fighting for a while, so my hands were kinda sweaty and it….slipped!"

Seeing the new reinforcements as Kristoff, Sven, and a number of other fairies converged on this area, these pirates apparently decided that they had enough and decided to flee back towards the beach.

* * *

As Black Adder arrived in time to witness this shameful display, a silent snarl formed in his throat! He simply could not believe that this was happening! He had plundered places that were much more heavily fortified than this, places that were protected my much bigger and stronger men! He should not be being thwarted by an island full of glorified bug people!

As he watched Queen Elsa shake her head ruefully at something in the sky, Adder decided it must all be _her_ fault! He'd kidnapped that witch for her to use her powers to help him! Instead, she took his grand plans and practically ground them into dust! If she had been a little closer, he would have taken her head for the trouble she'd caused him today. As it was, however, she would have spotted him before he cot close enough and would have frozen him solid!

Then, as the sister landed practically right in front of him and said gleefully, "It's working, Elsa! We've got them on the run!" Adder decided that perhaps providence was with him after all! The witch was too far away, but her sister was separated from him by a couple of yards, and had her back turned towards him to boot! He had killed men that had been further away without them being the wiser. As he silently drew his cutlass, Adder figured that the shock of seeing her sister cut down before her would shock the witch enough to allow him to do her too, but even if it didn't it would still serve as a good example of what happens to those who defy the crew of the Jolly Roger! Taking his opportunity, Adder raised his sword high and charged through the brush.


	5. 5) Shock and Awe

**Shock and Awe**

As Elsa ducked under the skillet, she had to cringe internally. She had told her sister to be careful and keep a tight hold on it, and yet just now she herself had nearly been a victim of her little sister's clumsiness! Still Elsa had to admit that she was glad to see her. If her sister was well enough to fumble pans from 20 feet in the air and apologize about it afterwards, then that at least was something to be thankful for. As Anna landed in front of her, saying, "It's working, Elsa! We've got them on the run!" Elsa began to think that it was true, that they may be able to help these fairies save their home.

Then, like some demon from a nightmare that refuses to go away no matter how many times you vanquish him, Black Adder came running out of the thick brush behind Anna, his sword raised for the kill! If Elsa had thought about what to do, if she told Anna to fly away or if she rushed in to try and defend her with her ice batons, then Anna would surely have been killed! Instead, operating entirely on instinct, Elsa unleashed an ice blast that knocked the cutlass from the Captain's grasp and froze his hand 2/3 the way to his elbow, causing him to bellow in pain and rage.

Anna was frozen with wide-eyed shock for a few seconds as she came to grips with how close to death she just came. Then, her face clouding in anger, Anna picked up the sword that impaled itself into the ground in front of her and turned around to place the point of it against the Captain's chest as she growled, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't run you through right now!"

Adder, with a smile that Elsa found infuriating, answered cordially, "A fair enough request, lass. There are men aplenty who would argue that ye had the right to impale me on my own blade without even giving me that small courtesy, what with what I'd done to your sister and what I tried to do to you, on top of my huge list of sins. But ye asked for a reason, so a reason ye shall have." Then he took a deep breath and bellowed, "Torches! Light the place up, boys!"

To Elsa's horror, the pirates who had not already been knocked senseless helped the others to their feet, then they ignited wooden torches that they had been carrying and proceeded to set the forest on fire while runners went to other parts of the island to relay that order to the others!

"Stop them!" Anna demanded as she pressed the cutlass's point harder against his chest, causing a stain of crimson to bloom on his white undershirt, "Stop them, or I'll…!"

"…kill me, lass?" the Captain finished for her, "Aye, ye probably should have done that before I gave that order, but I'm afraid that killing me won't stop them now. They knew what position I was in when I gave that order, and so they will carry it out until it's done or until I give a new one. They're very loyal like that, you see, and I've come too far and had faced death too many times to let the threat of death stop me now!"

* * *

Elsewhere, Sil and the other water fairies had their hands full using the water cannons to put out the blazes. They seemed rather suited for the task, but the fairies were rather worn already from the battle earlier, and it seemed that for every fire they put out the pirates set two more in their place. Sil shuddered at the thought of what would happen to their home if things kept up this way.

* * *

The fast fliers with Vidia were having even more trouble than the water fairies in containing the blazes. To Vidia's dismay, it seemed as though her talent fed and drove the blazes rather than putting them out!

"Try pulling the air away from the fire!" Dewey, the knowledge keeper from the Winter Woods hollered up in suggestion.

Vidia nodded in understanding then, together with the other fast flying fairies, they flew in tight formation around one of the fires until they'd created a funnel cloud around it. At first the blaze only seemed to reach higher, but then, to Vidia's great relief, the fire suddenly winked out.

"Whew!" Vidia panted as she wiped the sweat from her brow, "That's one down, and far too many to go!"

* * *

Elsewhere, the Winter Fairies are finding themselves outside their element even more so than before. While their talents might have been ideal for putting out the fires, the heat generated by the blazes was overpowering even the cooling effect provided by Elsa's snow clouds, so they couldn't even get close! The best they could do was to frost the trees not yet touched by the blaze while the glacier fairies filled in the spaces between them with huge ice bricks in an attempt to create a fire break. However, as the fire crept ever closer and the frost began to melt off the covered trees, it became clear to Gliss and the others that what Pixie Hollow needed most right now was a miracle.

* * *

Meanwhile, the garden fairies, light fairies, and tinker fairies were all helping the animal fairies in evacuating the areas in greatest danger from the fires. Rose was especially frantic as she called out, "Tick- Tock! Tick-Tock, where are you!?"

Rose turned as she heard a bellowing groan and breathed a sigh of relief as she saw the baby crocodile waddling quickly towards her, looking rather frightened and sooty but otherwise unharmed. "Are you alright, baby?" Rose said in concern as she looked him over, then when she was satisfied that he had no injuries that she noticed, she said, "We best be getting' outta here, sugah!"

As she started to lead the little croc away, Rose heard a groaning creak and her eyes went wide as she saw a burning free falling directly towards them. Knowing that Tick-Tock would not be able to get out of the way in time, Rose shielded him with her body the best that she could. Then, as she braced herself for the painful impact, Rose heard another crack, this one of thunder and she looked up in time to see a bolt of lightning strike the falling tree and knock it aside enough to miss both Rose and Tick-Tock.

Following the bolt to its source, Rose saw two fairies whom she least expected to see. Well, one of them at least: while Glimmer had apologized for having been used in their attempt to rob the garden fairies of their hard-earned win during the Pixie Hollow Games, and even made sure that her team did not benefit from their cheating by refusing to cross the finish line with her teammate, Rumble had not shown any remorse for his notorious act.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Rose said as she placed her fists on her hips.

"What do you mean 'what are we doing here'? This is our home too! Do you think that we're just gonna stand by while some disgusting prates burn it to the ground?" Rumble said indignantly. Then, when Glimmer elbowed him in the ribs, Rumble looked more remorseful as he added, "And I wanted to apologize for what I did during the Games. I guess I just got rather caught up with the idea of remaining undefeated, but what I did was uncool. Sorry!"

Rose glared at him for one moment more before a lopsided smile crept onto her face as she said, "Pffft, heat of the moment! It happens! Speaking of heat, can you guys do something about this fire?"

Rumble got a relieved smile in his face as Glimmer chuckled and said, "Can we? You guys ever hear of a forest fire lasting very long during a tempest?"

As the other storm fairies gathered behind them, Rumble added, "You fairies better take cover! It's going to get rather wet out here!"

As Rose and the other took their suggestion, she saw the storm fairies combine their talents as, indeed, they created a sizable tempest that managed to drive back and put out the fire in this area. However, as impressive as this display was, she knew that the storm fairies could not be everywhere, and as long as the pirates were out there this was as interim solution. Giving up was not an option, 'though, so under Rose's direction they all moved on to the next hotspot.

* * *

Elsa had constructed an ice pillar that boosted her above the canopy while her sister stood guard over the Captain. Carefully Identifying the areas that she saw no movement other than the fires, Elsa unleashed blast after blast of her power, smothering the blazes under a blanket of snow and immediately thawing it again. Down below, Adder mocked her effort, chuckling as he said, "Whacha gonna do, lass, freeze the entire island? Don't think that'll be too good for your flying friends, do you?"

Elsa looked and saw what the Captain was referring to. Even though the areas where Elsa had been directing her power were a good distance from here, the use of so many Ice blasts around here had dropped the temperature enough that Queen Clarion was shivering despite the cloak that Lord Milori had removed from his shoulders to wrap around her, adding his own body heat even as he glared at the Captain.

Lowering herself back down to the ground, Elsa glared at Adder malignantly as she said, "You're a monster!"

"Aye, lass, that be true. There be no denying that fact," Adder conceded, "But I'm not the one responsible for the devastation ye see around us. You are."

Elsa was filled with so many conflicting and turbulent emotions that she was unable to come up with a retort right away. Anna turned her head towards her and cried out , "Elsa, don't listen to him!"

"If ye had simply honored our agreement, just used your powers to frighten off a few fairies, then we could have gotten our hands on the pixie dust cleanly and been on our merry way. No harm, no foul," Adder continued, "Instead, you had to run off and help the fairies try and resist, requiring my men to resort to these more extreme measures. Didn't anybody ever teach you that the only thing war is good for is ruining lives?"

"Elsa!" Anna said as she dropped the sword and ran over to her, shaking her by the shoulders, "Snap out of it!"

"It's not too late to stop this, lass," Adder offered as he picked up his sword with his non-frozen hand and placed it back in its scabbard, "I'm a fair man. I'd be willing to order the men to stop torching the place. All you have to do is tell your fairy friends to stand down and surrender their pixie dust to me. Do that, and I'll give you my word of honor that neither I nor my men will bring any further harm on this island or its inhabitants."

"No, Elsa! You can't do it!" Anna pleaded with her, "You can't trust him!"

Of course Elsa knew Adder couldn't be trusted. He had lied about having Anna in his custody just to get her to agree to help him. But what were her options then? Either sit back and watch the island burn, or try to save it herself and possibly cause an equal amount of harm to the fairies themselves? And even if she could trust him to keep his word, Adder had only promised no further harm to those who lived here. That obviously didn't include Anna, Kristoff or herself. Even if she could get him to modify his agreement to include her sister, could that justify ruining the fairies lives or unleashing a new terror on the seas? Elsa glanced over and saw her desperation mirrored in Queen Clarion's eyes, her gaze silently pleading for another miracle that Elsa was fresh out of.

As Anna continued to shake her sister, Elsa felt something hard thumping on her chest next to her frantically beating heart. Reaching down to grasp it in her hand, Elsa suddenly remembered: Julian's pendant! Didn't he ask her to use it to contact him if she had ever found herself in an impossible situation she was unable to get out of? Grasping the pendant firmly in her hand, Elsa cried out in desperation, "Julian, please! Help us!"

Apparently taking her response for a 'no', Black Adder pulled a flintlock pistol from the waistband of his trousers and cocked it, aiming it at Elsa's head as he said, "Sorry, lass, but I don't think that praying to your saints will do you any go…"

_KASPLOOSH!_ The Captain was interrupted by an explosion of water so loud that it could be heard even from this distance from the cove. Her heart hammering from a sudden upsurge of hope, Elsa stood and formed an icicle to use as a spyglass even as Adder holstered his pistol to pull out his own. As she looked out at the cove, Elsa thought for a moment that the new ship she saw having just emerged from the waters was that of Julian having responded to her entreaty.

However, as she examined this vessel, her hopes began to wane as she became increasingly convinced that it could not be his. For one thing, this ship was at least twenty times larger than the modest fishing boat her father had given him to replace his own dilapidated vessel. While Elsa had seen Julian do some remarkable things with his power, like turn the scraps of his old ship into a formidable combat armor, Elsa could not imagine why he would increase the size of his ship to the point where it could hold a crew even larger than Adder's.

In addition to it's size, this ship was far too grand to be Julian's. As far as Elsa could tell, this ship was entirely decked out in gold and bronze! She knew her father had left a small reward on the boat for Julian's services, but not enough for that (provisions and other supplies were of a higher priority), and Elsa was sure that Julian would see no need for such extravagance anyway.

Then, atop the main mast, Elsa saw something that made her hopes vanish entirely: that ship was flying a jolly roger, the skull and crossbones flag only used by pirates! Even if Julian had some reason to modify his ship to look like that, there was no way he would ever fly such a flag, of that Elsa was certain. That meant that either this ship was Adder's ally or his rival. Either way, they were no friends of hers.

Elsa lowered her spyglass and was preparing to suggest to Queen Clarion that they do as the Captain said when, out of the corner of her eye, Elsa saw something that startled her even more. Adder's face did not appear jubilant or even annoyed, his face was filled with abject terror. White as a sheet, Adder had the look of a man that had seen the Devil coming and knew he was out to collect on his deal.

"By the Code!" Adder breathed, "It cannot be!" Then he raised his voice to a bellow and called, "Back to the ship, men! Hurry!"

"What!?" one of the men who emerged from the thicket asked in disbelief, "But Captain…!"

"Look to the cove!" Adder interrupted, "That be the Flying Dutchman off our port bow! Davey Jones has come for us all!"

For one moment, all was quiet save for the distant crackling of flames, and every pirate that Elsa could see bore the same look of abject fear that their captain wore. Then pandemonium erupted as all the pirates fled back towards the beach, their torches discarded and trampled underfoot, with the din growing louder as the news spread to the other parts of the island. Now Elsa had heard of Davy Jones before: no specifics, only that the sailors associated that name with death at sea. If this man was so terrible that his mere appearance would cause these hardened pirates to flee like the Grim Reaper was hot on their heels, then Elsa wasn't sure that she wanted to meet him.

Looking through her spyglass again, Elsa saw as every single pirate piled haphazardly into the rowboats, with those who were too slow to get in before they cast off deciding to chance swimming back to the ship. They had got about half-way there when the Flying Dutchman began to open fire on the Jolly Roger from an unusual cannon set in the ship's stern. Elsa figured that those were merely warning shots, as she couldn't imagine that they would really miss from that far away. Adder's pirates didn't seem to need the extra motivation, however, for as soon as the last one was onboard the Jolly Roger set full sails and sped out of the cove as quickly as it was able.

"Is that it, then?" Anna asked in a cautiously optimistic tone, "Is it really over?"

"It looks as though Adder and his men have been driven out of Neverland," Elsa confirmed in a neutral tone, "and from how fast they're running it may be a long while before they return again."

Then the island exploded with the sounds of cheering as Anna and Kristoff joined most of the fairies in celebrating what they felt was the end of their nightmare. Queen Clarion, however, had noticed Elsa's cautious tone and said in concern, "You don't sound pleased with that, Queen Elsa."

"The ship that drove Adder's pirates away was flying a pirate flag, and they were absolutely terrified when they knew it was here," Elsa explained.

"And you're worried that those men might be even worse than the ones we just dealt with," Queen Clarion guessed.

"That is what I'm afraid of, yes," Elsa confirmed.

"Wait, what's going on?" Anna asked, coming down from her jubilation.

"I believe that we may have traded one problem for a greater one," Elsa summarized.

Elsa's announcement puts a damper on the mood of those present.

"You're kidding!" Kristoff exclaimed in disbelief.

Queen Clarion nodded in grim understanding and asked, "How do you think we should proceed?"

"I think you should stay here with your people and coordinate the effort to get these fires out, make sure that treatment gets to those who need it," Elsa suggested, "I'll go to the cove and determine the nature of our latest visitors."

"Sounds like a wise plan," Lord Milori observed.

"I'm going with you!" Anna said in a determined tone.

"Not without me, you're not!" added Kristoff.

In the end, the three humans were accompanied by Tink, Perri, and Zarina while the others remained behind to clean up the mess that Adder's men left. Elsa wasn't sure why Julian had not responded to her call, but she hoped that what she would learn at the cove would not lead to more bad news.

* * *

James could not believe it! When his Captain had went ashore, James had thought that he surely would be able to obtain the pixie dust they had went through so much trouble to obtain, not to mention make a few fairies suffer to boot. Now, with Neverland vanishing on the horizon, James felt that his chance for glory and revenge was vanishing along with it. All because his Captain was frightened by an old sailor's tale of a single ship!

"He should have let me go with him!" James muttered sullenly as he leaned his elbows against the railing.

"Aww, cheer up Jimmy!" Smee said in a chipper tone as he patted James on the back, "There'll be other raids, other treasures to plunder. This isn't the end, you know?"

James perked up at the thought, "You're right, Smee! This isn't the end by a long shot!" He then planted his foot on the railing and shook his fist in Neverland's direction as he bellowed, "You hear that, you blasted fairies!? This isn't over! The Flying Dutchman cannot protect you forever! When I'm Captain of my own crew, I will return; and everything that walks, crawls, swims and flied on this wretched island will feel my wrath! So swears James Bartholomew Hook!"

"Ah, pipe down, cabin boy!" calls out one pirate grumpily.

"Come on, James," Smee said as he guided him with one arm behind his back, "Let's you and I go to the galley and split a barrel of grog."

* * *

As Elsa made her way to the beach, she could feel the island cooling by degrees, the stench of smoke growing thinner with every step. Either that meant that they were getting farther away from where the pirates had set the fires, or the fairies were having greater success in putting them out now that the pirates were gone. She confirmed that it was the latter when some them came up to her and informed her so while thanking her for helping them drive the pirates away, thanks that Elsa wasn't certain she deserved. Sure she had came up with some decent strategies for them to hold the pirates off, but she hadn't accounted for them to resort to such a rotten trick as setting the place on fire, nor had she been of much help in putting them out.

More than that, her last gambit, calling Julian for aid, seemed to have fallen flat and now they had to deal with yet another group of pirates. Between the first fight and the subsequent efforts to save the place from going up in smoke, Elsa was sure that none of them had the energy for a second round.

When the ship dispatched a single rowboat just as Elsa and her friends reached the shore, she wondered once again just what kind of person this Davy Jones really was. Considering the fear she felt from the pirates as they fled, Elsa figured that he was either a hideous monstrosity or formidably strong, maybe even both.

When the rowboat was near enough for her to see, Elsa though that none of the men aboard matched either description. In fact, the man standing in the prow with the Captain's hat on actually looked rather handsome, nearly as much so in his own way as Julian. Nor did he look as cruel as Adder or any of his men, though from her experiences with Hans and the former Duke of Weselton told her appearances can be deceptive.

When the boat finally stopped, the handsome man stepped out of the boat and took a couple of steps forward until he was only shin deep in the water. Then, removing his hat in a formal bow, the man said, "Greetings, I am William Turner, Captain of the Flying Dutchman, and judging by your appearance, you must be Queen Elsa of Arendelle. Sir Steinwell sends his regards."

"I am," Elsa said in confusion, as much at this fearsome pirate's formal manner as his familiarity with her, "I'm sorry, but do I know you?"

"I don't believe so, milady," Captain Turner replied, "It's just that I've heard so much about you from a number of different people, Sir Steinwell included, that I believe I'd recognize you anywhere." When Elsa's look of confusion didn't clear, Will clarified, "Sir Julian Steinwell? He was visiting me when he got your call."

"Wait, Julian sent you?" Elsa asked him, more confused than ever.

"Yes," Will confirmed, "You should have seen his face when he found out what was happening to you, 'though he asked that I refrain from sending the pirates from their 'much deserved fate' a mite early. Something about them still having a role to play in the future of this land."

"I see," Elsa said, thinking that this did sound like something Julian would say. As she glanced again at the jolly roger the main ship was still flying, Elsa said, "I didn't know that Julian knew any….sailors such as yourself. Are you guys really pirates?"

Will chuckled at her question as he answered, "In life, back when I was a mortal man, I served a brief time as a pirate. Purely out of necessity, you understand. Back where I came from, in Port Royal, the powers who were in charge didn't have the same concern for the public's welfare as you yourself do. When I first became captain of the Flying Dutchman, I flew that flag to symbolize my allegiance with Captain Jack Sparrow and his group as together we ended Lord Beckett's reign of terror. I keep it up now partly as a reminder of those days, but largely to show that the Flying Dutchman does not observe any nationalities in her mission; regardless of rank, station or place of birth, we will ferry anyone who has died at sea to their eternity."

Elsa recalled that Julian's friend Mushu had mentioned some Captain named Jack. "So when the pirates referred to you as Davy Jones…?" Anna said in revelation.

"Ah, those boys must have been out of circulation for a while," Will said as he suppressed a smile, "Davy jones was the previous Captain of the Dutchman. He had been given command of the ship and her mission by the goddess of the sea Calypso herself , with whom he'd fallen in love. I'll spare you their whole drama. Suffice it to say, he lost his way and forgot his mission, became a real terror for a while until it became necessary for him to be replaced."

"By you," Elsa said in understanding, "You said your pirates days were back when you were 'a mortal man'?"

Will nodded and parted the front of his shirt and Elsa saw a severe scar on his chest over where his heart was. Will explained, "When Davy Jones was killed, the crew carved out my heart as he had once cut out his own. Not only did that tie me to the same term that Jones once agreed to, but also as long as that heart is kept safe I cannot die."

"I sure hope you have that heart somewhere safe then," Anna said.

"I feel that my heart is in the safest place I know; my wife's care," Will said with a large smile.

Elsa's eyes widened at this latest revelation. When her eyes drifted down to his hand, she noticed for the first time the gold band that he was absently fiddling with in his finger. She had thought he seemed a little different from the pirates with Adder, but she could not have expected that he would be married, that any woman would willingly marry a pirate. The fact that he would be willing to trust this woman with the very thing that leaves him vulnerable, however, told her that their arrangement was not forced.

As Elsa's thoughts traveled down a less pleasant path, Julian nodded as he said, "I can guess what you're thinking, and you are correct. About three years ago I had escorted your parents, as well as the crew of their ship, to the afterlife. I remember them specifically because they did not insist that it wasn't their time or ask me to take them back. Their only thoughts was of you and your sister. They were afraid that they had left the wrong message with you by dying with their last order of shutting the palace gates intact. They were concerned that you might spend the rest of your life in isolation, always afraid of your powers hurting others and of those others rejecting you because of them. They were afraid that you would never trust others around you ever again."

"They were almost right," Elsa confirmed, "If I didn't have such a stubbornly friendly sister, I might have lived my entire life alone."

"Well, at any rate, they didn't try and fight their fate, they only prayed that both of you would be all right in the end," Will continued, "Then, recently and quite inexplicitly, their names disappeared from my ledger. That pretty much never happens, as my lists are of those who had died and not those of who are going to. What's more was the fact that none of my men remembered picking them or their crew up. And while I still remembered getting them, I also remembered having passed through that part of the ocean and only saw a single mast floating in the water.

"Of course, when Sir Steinwell came by in his new boat, I could guess what had happened even before he began to apologize for what inconvenience or confusion he had caused me. He assured me that he had only done so because no one among the living had witnessed their demise, and that he wasn't making a habit of doing so as he was aware of the imbalance that would create," Will said, "Of course he talked a lot about you as well, milady. So much so that, even if I did not remember your parents also talking about you, I would still be able to identify you easily. I don't think that he was yet finished when he had received your distress signal."

"But he didn't come with you?" Elsa asked, sounding somewhat disappointed.

"I'm sure that he had his reasons," Will assured her, "but whatever the reason was, he did impress upon us that, while he felt we should spare the Jolly Roger if possible, your safety was of greater priority. If it came between the pirates and you, then we had to save you."

Elsa sighed as she thought, _That's something at least. _ Tinkerbell told Elsa, "You should ask him to come with us. I'm sure that Queen Clarion will want to thank him properly, now that we know he's not an enemy."

"Alas, fairy, I cannot," Will told Tink.

Tink's astonishment was matched by Elsa and the others and the Queen asked him, "You understood her?"

"Of course," Will said matter-of-factly, "As a farrier of the dead, I am able to understand the speech of all sentient beings, as any of them are capable to dying at sea, even aquatic beings like mermaids."

"Okay, but why can't you come see Queen Clarion?" Periwinkle asked.

"Because of the contract I was bound to when I was made the Dutchman's Captain," Will explained, "One day ashore, then ten years at sea. That's the contract that Davy Jones had made with Calypso, the contract I'm now obligated to fulfill. Until it is done, I'm forbidden from setting foot on dry land."

"At all?" Elsa asked, noting the loneliness in his voice.

"That's right," Will confirmed, "I wasn't even able to be there when my son was born almost four years ago. I'm kind of looking forward to seeing how he's grown when I have finished my tour of duty, and I hope that he doesn't hate me too much for not being able to be there."

As Elsa glanced over at her sister, an idea came to her as she said, "What if you didn't have to set foot on dry land?"

"What do you mean?" Will asked.

Then Elsa looked over at Tinkerbell, and she saw her playful grin and the mischievous glint in her eyes mirrored in the fairy's own.

* * *

_"Whooooaaaahhhhh!_" Will Turned exclaimed as he wobbled through the air like an ungainly bird. As he suddenly dipped in altitude, Tinkerbell called out helpfully, "Remember, keep thinking those happy thoughts!"

"Those happy thoughts were easier to come when I had my feet firmly on solid ground!" Will called back, his pitch higher with nervous tension.

"But Captain Turner, I thought you said you_ couldn't_ have your feet on solid ground!" Elsa said to him, mirth coloring her voice.

"Very funny, your Highness," Will responded in a droll tone, "Personally speaking, I thing I'd be a bit more comfortable on the ice slide with you."

"Are you sure?" Anna asked as she held on to her sister to slide along behind her, her tone sounding like she was having trouble not laughing, "It seems as though it's a little shaky on this end."

"Could you girls please lay off the jokes!" Kristoff pleaded as he was pulled along behind Anna, his voice also tight with nervous tension.

Both sets of sisters bust up laughing as Tink's other friends rejoin them one by one in mid-flight. Elsa then relays some instructions to Sil, who headed back towards the ocean with the other water fairies while Elsa and the others continued on towards the Pixie Dust Tree. When they arrived, Elsa and the others disembarked from her ice slide, Kristoff looking glad to do so, and Will hovered while Elsa used her powers to create a decent sized platform with a large bucket on top. Finally, when Sil and the other water fairies deposited their load of seawater into the bucket, Will lowered himself inside, looking rather relieved himself.

As Queen Clarion and Lord Milori approached, Elsa briefly introduced them to their newest guest.

"A pleasure, Captain," Queen Clarion greeted him with a curtsey, "We don't know how to thank you for coming. The fire the pirates of the Jolly Roger started had caused great damage, but thanks to your timely intervention we were able to get it under control before any lives were lost."

"No thanks are necessary, my Queen," Will bowed as he responded, "When you have seen as much death as I have, you would jump at the chance to save some lives as well."

"Nevertheless, your nobility is still outstanding and not to be ignored," Lord Milori added, "We can never than you enough. If there's anything that we can do for you…."

"You're words of thanks more than suffice, but now I must return to my ship so as to continue my duty," Will said with a bow. He then looked uneasily up at the sky before turning towards Elsa and saying, "I don't think I want to try flying again. Your highness, if you would…?"

Elsa chuckled once before saying, "Of course." She then built the platform up into a sled that contained Will's bucket inside. Once Sven had pulled it back to the beach, Will hopped out of it directly back into the surf. As his men prepared to cast off again, Will turned back towards Elsa and said, "I understand that you may be concerned about Sir Steinwell, about what he's determined to do. I would be as well, if my Elizabeth were in the same position. However, he has been though a great number of experiences, and he came close many times to being killed, yet he still lives. I doubt that his end will come before his own parents, milady."

"I hope you're right," Elsa said morosely.

"Don't worry," Will said as he briefly laid his hand on Elsa's shoulder in comfort. Then, when she looked up and smiled slightly, he returned her smile and walked back to his rowboat. Just as he entered it, Zarina flew up an called out, "Captain Turner? I want you to know that I still don't trust pirates, but you did save my home, so…." Then she unslung her sheathed cutlass from her shoulders and held it out to him as she finished, "….thank you."

Will nodded as he took the tiny sword from her grasp and tucked it into his hatband as he said, "You're quite welcome, miss fairy. And while I'd recommend keeping that distrust of pirates, as most of them are not as nice as me, I hope that you can learn to trust people again."

Zarina then smiled and nodded as she flew back to the others. As the boat was rowed back to the ship, Will waved as he called out, "Farewell, my friends! Calypso be willing, we will meet again, 'though hopefully in this life!"

"Maybe we should have asked if they could have given us a ride back home?" Kristoff said as he placed one arm around Anna's shoulders.

As the Flying Dutchman sank once again beneath the waves, Anna smiles as she replies sardonically, "Somehow, I don't think that ship is hospitable for 'mortal beings' like us."

Elsa chuckled once as she said, "Come on, guys. We have some preparations to make before our own departure."

* * *

Part of those preparations was the retrieval of Kristoff's sled, which was hidden with the help of the winter fairies just on the edge of the Winter Woods. Of course Elsa could have simply commissioned another one, but since she also had business over there she didn't mind the detour. While Anna and Kristoff dug it out of the snow that had collected on it, Elsa (with Lord Milori's permission) created miniature snow clouds for those winter fairies she hadn't already given one to.

"Now I would recommend waiting at least a day after I've left to make sure those won't fade away once I'm out of range of Neverland," Elsa advised them as she made the last of them, "and make sure that you don't travel alone in the warmer seasons, in the event something should happen."

"You have done my people a great service," Lord Milori said to her gratefully, "Thank you."

"Believe me, it was the least I could do," Elsa said in kind.

Once Anna and Kristoff had unearthed the sled, Sven was itching to pull it back over to the beach, but the log bridge was a little too narrow for him to do so. So Elsa created a bridge of ice right next to the log bridge, covering it with just enough snow to allow Sven to have enough traction on the slippery surface. Once he was across, Elsa was ready to dissolve it again, but Lord Milori said that she could leave it. "If it melts due to the warmth on the autumn side, then so be it," he explained, "but if possible we'd like to keep it, as a physical reminder of what you've done for us since you've came."

Elsa nodded in understanding, then she added to the autumn side of the bridge a sign that read_ Welcome to the Winter Woods_ and topped it off with a small snow cloud that hovered 8 feet directly above it.

"It's perfect," Lord Milori complimented her, "Thank you."

"Thank you, milord, for everything," Elsa responded, then she turned to follow the others back towards the beach.

* * *

Back at the cove, Tink watched as Elsa worked on her latest creation: a boat made entirely of ice. Larger than a rowboat, yet smaller than either one of the pirate ships that was recently here, its design was as simple as it was beautiful. Even the billowing sails was made of ice, and Tink suspected that if she were to touch them it would feel similar to Elsa's dress. She felt a twinge of sadness as she watched Elsa's sister and friends board the vessel, as she knew that meant that her new friend would soon be headed back home.

The snowman, Olaf, seemed rather reluctant to board. "Say Anna, Elsa," he said hesitantly, "Would it be okay if the fairies brought me home a little later? I'd like to look around this place a little while longer, plus I'd like to make sure that Marshmallow gets settled in okay."

Elsa hesitated for a moment, and Tink knew that she was concerned about the permanence of her powers, that without her around his cloud might vanish and he'd turn into a puddle in the warmer seasons. After a moment's pause Elsa said, "Sure Olaf, just be sure to head straight to the Winter Woods if you run into any problems at all. Okay?" Then, after Olaf nodded, both Anna and Elsa hugged the snowman before he turned and skipped into the woods saying, "See you guys later!"

Almost immediately afterward, Queen Clarion and Lord Milori emerged together with a good number of the fairies and sparrowmen from Pixie Hollow.

"You guys didn't have to see us off, you know," Elsa said with a smile.

"Perhaps, but it would have been rude not to," Queen Clarion replied with her own smile, "and we felt we could not let you go without giving you something for what you had went though on our behalf."

"I appreciate it, truly, but you didn't need to go though the trouble of getting me anything," Elsa replied.

"It was no trouble at all, your Highness" Queen Clarion responded in kind, "With the pirates taking you from home against your will, and the fact that you opted to stay and help us in spite of the fact that you could have been captured again or worse, we felt that the least we could do was ensure you a safe and speedy trip back home."

Then, at Queen Clarion's signal, Terrance and his fellow dust deeper fairies flew over Elsa's boat and sprinkled it with a generous amount of pixie dust. Almost immediately, the boat lifted out of the water and hovered a couple of inches above it.

"The fastest and most direct way out of Neverland is flying, of course," Queen Clarion added with a smile, "Just follow the second star to the right and you'll be back home before you know it."

"Thank you, everyone," Elsa said gratefully.

"As you said yourself, milady, it was the least we could do," Lord Milori said with a bow.

Elsa then turned to Tink and Perri and they flew over to hug her, though they chose this time to each hug one of her shoulders, keeping enough distance from one another to avoid having their wings accidentally touch again.

"I'm really going to miss you, Elsa," Tink said with a sniff.

"Me too," Perri agreed while wiping a tear from her own eye.

"I'll miss you guys as well, but this goodbye doesn't have to be forever," Elsa said as se gently patted them both, "You guys can visit me in Arendelle at anytime, and if the snow cloud I'd created for you doesn't last when I leave here, Perri, then I'll be sure to have a fresh one waiting for you if you come between spring and fall."

"Thanks," Perri said with a watery smile.

"And Tink," Elsa said with a lowered voice, so that only she and Perri were able to hear her, "I know that you're still unsure about how you feel about Terrance, and that's why you have been reluctant to take any actions about it. But, judging by my own personal experience, I think that it would be better if you actively do something to try and discover the nature of your feelings towards him; invite him to dinner, talk to him about things not related to tinker or dust fairy duties, even simply sit together on a branch to watch the sun set. If you just wait for your heart to reveal to you how you feel, then by that time it may be too late. I'm sure that there are a number of worse things than a missed opportunity to tell someone you care about them, but the only one I can think of now is to have a loved one taken from you."

"You think I should tell him I care about him?" Tink asked her.

"When you know, yes," Elsa confirmed, "But don't wait to find out, seek out the answer yourself."

"Thanks," Tink said with a smile, "I'll do that."

Elsa nodded, then she turned and boarded her boat. After raising the back gate and securing the sled inside, Elsa turned one last time and said, "I'll never forget you all, my friends! Until we meet again!" Then she faced forward and summoned up a gust of Arctic wind that filled the sails, lifting the ship into the sky towards the second star. As the other fairies bid the humans farewell and the winter fairies went back to the Winter Woods, Tink called Terrance over and asked, "Would you like to come over to my place and have a cup of tea or something?"

"Sure, Tink," Terrance said eagerly, "Were you needing help on another project?"

"Not this time, no," Tink admitted, "I just thought it'd be nice to sit and watch the sun set and talk about things. Be a bit relaxing after a day like this."

"Uh, sure," Terrance said, blushing slightly, "That'd be great!"

Tinkerbell felt herself blushing as well as she and Terrance flew back to Tinker's Nook. As Elsa had observed, Tink wasn't certain how she felt about Terrance yet, but at least she'd have fun finding out.

_Elsa's adventures continue in "Stone Cold"_


End file.
